,^0Wmic(>, 


1    1958 


BV  4010  .P3  1873 
Parker,  Joseph,  1830 
Ad  clerum 


1902 


.\C 


AD   CLER^ 


MAY    1     I95P 


kIg/slsw^:^ 


ADVICES     TO    A   YOUNG    PREACHER. 


BY 


y 


JOSEPH     PARKER,     D.D 


Author  of  " Ecce  Detis"  etc.,  etc. 


Hontron: 
HODDER    &    STOUGHTON, 

27,  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 


MDCCCLXXIII. 


Butler  &•  Tanner, 

Tlie  Selwood  Printing  World, 

Frome,  amd  London. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 


I.  Discipline          .        o 1 

II.  Earnestness «  11 

III.  Naturalness 25 

IV.  Delivery 38 

V.  Sensational  Preaching 61 

VI.  The  Homilist :  Man  and  Book          ....  74 

VII.  Textual  Divisions 91 

VIII.  Harris  and  Beecher 102 

IX.  The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit   '^:         .         .         .         ,  114 

X.  Published  Sermons  ......         »  141 

XL  Suburbanism     .         .         .         »         .         .         .         .  163 

XII.  Dr.  John  Campbell 168 

XIII.  A  Chapter  on  Pastoral  Theology      .        .        *        .  197 

XIV.  Unsuccessful  Men •    .  213 

XV.  Beware  of  Men 227 

XVI.  Directories 241 

XVII.  The  Guarantees  of  a  Successful  Ministry         .        .  255 

XVIII.  Figures,  Parables,  and  Anecdotes   ....  267 

XIX.  Frameworks 282 

XX.  Epilogue  *        .                        .        ,                .        .  291 


ADYICES    TO    A    YOUNG    PEEACHER. 


PART  I. 

CRITICAL     LETTERS. 

I. 
DISCIPLINE. 

Mr.  Washington  lias,  in  my  opinion,  done  well  to  draw 
your  attention  to  the  ministry,  tliongh  I  feel  that  both  he 
and  you  have  thrown  no  little  responsibility  upon  me  in 
asking  an  answer  to  the  many  serious  inquiries  contained 
in  your  interesting  letter.  In  accepting  that  responsi- 
bility (which  is  done  with  extreme  reluctance)  you  must 
understand  that  throughout  my  correspondence  I  shall 
assume  that  you  feel  yourself  called  of  God  to  the  work  of 
preaching  the  gospel,  and  that  you  are  daily  striving  to 
live  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  wish  to  be  very  clear 
upon  this  point ;  for  though  I  may  take  occasion  to  ex- 
press myself  somewhat  playfully  on  many  questions  which 
will  arise,  yet  I  deeply  feel  that  without  a  spirit  of 
reverent  and  contrite  humiliation  before  God,  and  a  con- 
stancy of  loving  and  trustful  desire  towards  the  Saviour^ 
no  man  is  fit  to  have  part  or  lot  in  the  Christian  ministry ; 
when,  therefore,  I  avail  myself  of  satire  or  raillery,  it  will 


2  Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

relate  to  the  weakness  or  eccentricity  of  liuman  usages, 
and  never  to  tlie  vital  and  solemn  realities  of  the  Divine 
vocation.  Our  place,  as  aspirants  to  the  highest  ministry, 
is  at  the  cross,  where  alone  the  oppression  of  our  own 
unworthiness  is  relieved  by  the  completeness  of  Jesus 
Christ^s  grace  and  truth.  All  this  must  be  assumed ;  if 
we  are  wrong  here,  we  shall  be  wrong  everywhere ;  the 
gift  of  prophecy  and  tongues,  and  the  understanding  of 
all  mysteries,  will  be  only  temptations  and  snares,  and 
our  ministry  will  be  as  a  plague  in  the  church. 

You  have  been  very  frank  in  the  statement  of  your 
difficulties,  and  I  regard  your  frankness  as  an  invitation 
to  your  confidence ;  I  shall  therefore  speak  with  the 
familiarity  of  friendship,  being  assured  that  you  will  not 
make  me  "  an  offender  for  a  word.''^  Shall  I  condole 
with  you  upon  your  trials  before  the  committee  of  the 
college  ?  You  complain  that  though  you  went  before  the 
committee  with  the  simple  desire  to  become  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel,  one  of  the  gentlemen  horrified  you  by  request- 
ing that  you  would  decline  '^  Hircus,  a  he-goat,^^  on  the 
spot,  and  that  having  declined  it  in  the  only  way  which 
you  knew,  viz.  with  much  bashfulness  and  civility,  an- 
other gentleman  asked  you  to  show  that  if  two  triangles 
have  their  homologous  sides  proportional  they  are 
equiangular  and  similar.  You  ask  me,  in  a  somewhat 
impatient  tone,  what  such  pagan  inquiries  have  to  do 
with  preaching  the  gospel  ?  You  also  complain  that  you 
were  not  asked  to  preach  to  the  committee,  but  to  preach 
before  the  committee ;  on  this  point  I  merely  say  in  pass- 
ing that  you  really  could  not  have  preached  to  the  gentle- 
men, because  if  you  had  addressed  them  as  saints  some 
of  them  might  have  been  startled,  and  if  you  had  spoken 


Blsciplme.  3 

to  tliem  as  sinners  some  of  them  might  have  been 
oflended.  The  gentlemen,  you  must  know,  were  not 
exactly  hearing  for  themselves,  but  were  rather  congre- 
gationalising  by  proxy,  and  giving  the  preacher  a  fore- 
taste of  the  polite  treatment  which  is  in  reserve  for  him. 
As  to  the  Latin  noun  and  the  geometrical  theorem,  I  can 
sympathise  with  your  present  dissatisfaction,  yet  I  cannot 
but  hope  that  growing  experience  will  convince  you  that 
they  may  have  some  good  influence  upon  your  preparation 
for  the  ministry.  You  will  probably  forget  that  in  an 
isosceles  triangle  the  angles  opposite  to  the  equal  sides 
are  equal  to  one  another,  yet  the  discipline  of  demon- 
strating ifc  will  enable  you  to  humiliate  any  rash  heretic 
Avho  may  hereafter  seek  to  poison  your  church  members 
with  the  deadly  doctrine  of  necessitarianism.  You  thus 
observe,  my  dear  sir,  that  what  we  have  in  view  is  disci- 
pline ;  the  strength  of  arm  which  you  get  by  turning  a 
grindstone  may  be  turned  to  excellent  account  in  felling 
a  tree ;  and  the  discipline  which  is  imposed  by  proving 
that  some  x'^  are  some  t/'s,  and  that  other  x'&  are  all 
2/^s,  will  enable  you  to  pulverize  any  hot-headed  deacon 
who  may  hereafter  attempt  to  prove  that  you  had  better 
be  looking  out  for  another  pastorate.  So  you  see  we  seek 
to  whet  you  on  hard  subjects  that  you  may  the  better  cut 
easy  ones,  just  as  we  whet  a  knife  upon  stone  that  it  may 
the  more  readily  cut  the  smoking  joint.  Pray  therefore 
look  upon  your  technical  studies  in  the  light  of  dlscijjUtie, 
say,  if  you  please,  in  the  light  of  dumb  bells,  which  may 
force  you  to  breathe  though  they  never  breathe  themselves. 
Besides  this,  you  must  remember  that  it  would  be  very 
awkward  if  you  could  not  meet  your  people  on  their  own 
ground,  and  chastise  some  of  them  with  their  own  whips. 

b2 


4  Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

Only  tliink  liow  embarrassing  it  would  be  if  a  deacon^s 
son  knew  more  than  you  did  about  tbe  Law  of  excluded 
Middle ;  bow  could  that  young  man  listen  with  any  con- 
fidence to  your  exhortations  from  the  pulpit  ?  Would 
not  the  princij)ium  exclusi  medii,  vel  tertiij  on  which  he 
had  broken  you  to  pieces  deafen  him  to  your  most  urgent 
appeals  ?  Think  again^  if  your  lot  should  be  cast  among 
a  seafaring  population,  how  utterly  quenched  you  would 
feel  in  dining  with  a  captain  if  he  discovered  that  you 
could  not  calculate  the  varying  values  of  the  semidiameters 
of  the  sun  and  moon ;  and  though  he  might  excuse  your 
ignorance  of  the  laws  of  oblique  sailing,  do  you  suppose 
he  would  ever  ask  you  to  dine  again  if,  having  given  you 
a  lunar  distance,  you  could  not  find  its  Greenwich  date  ? 
Or  if  there  was  a  dentist  in  your  congregation,  do  you 
imagine  he  would  pay  his  pew-rent  with  any  satisfaction 
if  he  knew  that  you  could  not  distinguish  the  cusps  of 
the  chimpanzee  from  the  incisors  of  the  gorilla  ?  So, 
my  dear  sir,  you  must  regard  your  apparently  out-of-the- 
way  studies  strictly  in  the  light  of  discipline,  and  remem- 
ber that  everybody  expects  a  minister  to  know  every- 
thing, and  for  this  moderate  expectation  they  urge  the 
conclusive  reason  that  "he  has  been  at  college/^ 

I  fancy  your  saying  that  this  is  all  very  well,  but  you 
want  to  know  whether  you  could  not  have  the  substantial 
advantages  of  the  discipline  by  studying  subjects  which 
are  probably  quite  as  difficult,  yet  more  fruitful  of  practical 
results  in  actual  preparation  for  the  ministry.  You 
think  that  instead  of  seeking  help  from  the  proposition 
that  every  straight  line  perpendicular  to  the  directrix 
meets  the  parabola,  and  every  diameter  falls  wholly  with- 
in it,  you  might  thrust  your  sickle  into  a  richer  field,  and 


VtscvpUne.  5 

so  witli  little  loss  of  time  become  prepared  for  tlie  work 
of  preacliing  the  gospel.  The  fact  is^  I  am  a  good  deal 
of  the  same  opinion,  though  I  have  a  just  regard  not  only 
for  the  parabola  but  for  conic  sections  in  general ;  still 
you  must  remember  that  many  great  and  good  men 
would  very  strongly  disapprove  of  this  opinion  not  only 
as  weak  but  as  positively  mischievous.  Those  great 
men  have  a  right  to  be  heard  because  they  have  under- 
gone the  discipline,  and  (if  the  expression  maybe  allowed) 
are  living  monuments  of  its  advantages.  I  say  distinctly, 
of  its  advantages,  as  a  hundred  instances  could  testify. 
A  neighbour  of  mine,  whose  face  is,  metaphorically 
speaking,  written  all  over  with  the  words  "  scholium/'  and 
^^  lemma,''  was  called  to  officiate  at  a  wedding,  and  hastily 
snatching  the  marriage  service  appeared  at  the  altar  just 
in  time  to  save  his  reputation  for  punctuality ;  the 
reverend  and  learned  man  opened  his  book,  and  to  his 
horror  found  that  it  was  a  volume  of  Martin o's  "  Elementa 
Sectionum  Conicarum "  !  But  you  see  he  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  discipline,  and  if  the  blushing  bridegroom  had 
stepped  into  the  vestry  the  learned  minister  could  have 
shown  him  how  to  find  any  number  of  points  in  a  para- 
bola almost  without  having  given  either  the  focus  or  axis, 
and  is  not  this  infinitely  better  than  the  empty  humdrum 
of  a  wedding  service  ?  Another  neighbour,  if  I  may  call 
a  man  a  neighbour  who  spends  most  of  his  time  in  a  vain 
search  for  pure  hyponitrous  acid,  has  shown  the  ad- 
vantages of  discipline  by  giving  a  chemical  turn  to  such 
expressions  as  "of  the  earth,  earthy,"  and  representing  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  by  the  formula  O4  H3  O,  HO, 
which  formula  he  distinguishes  as  rational  in  opposition 
to  empirical.      I  could  point  to   several  other  gentlemen 


6  Ad  Clerum  :    Advices  to  a   Young  Treacher, 

equally  leariied_,  who  carry  with  them  the  air  of  inexorable 
discipline ;  my  great  trouble  with  those  men  is  to  draw 
from  them  a  sensible  and  straightforward  answer  to  any 
question,  and  in  this  respect  I  have  found  their  disciplino 
extremely  offensive.  Their  discipline  has  of  course  made 
them  very  exact,  and  their  love  of  exactness  is  such 
that  they  will  never  positively  declare  what  the  day 
of  the  month  is_,  or  commit  themselves  to  a  distinct 
opinion  of  the  time  of  day  ;  they  have  a  special  horror  of 
confounding  the  Noumena  with  the  Flicenomena,  and 
they  look  daggers  at  any  unhappy  man  who  is  ignorant 
of  the  doctrine  of  concepts.  It  is  amusing  to  watch  tho 
signs  of  suspicion  upon  their  faces  when  an  unknown 
interlocutor  invites  them  to  conversation  ;  they  evidently 
think  that  the  treacherous  intruder  intends  to  trip  them 
up  by  an  Undistributed  Middle,  or  to  cheat  them  by  a 
subtle  perversion  of  the  quantified  predicate,  and  there- 
fore they  equip  themselves  with  the  Law  of  Contra- 
diction. All  this,  you  see,  comes  of  high  discipline, 
and  therefore  you  ought  to  take  kindly  to  the  dry  and 
tedious  studies  which  seem  to  your  inexperienced  mind 
to  have  no  connection  with  the  work  of  the  Christian 
ministry. 

You  must  understand  me  as  being  thoroughly  in  favour 
of  discipline ;  at  the  same  time  it  is  right  to  point  out  that 
in  my  opinion  even  discipline  itself  may  be  too  dearly  paid 
foi:..  Discipline  is  too  costly,  for  example,  when  it  removes 
its  subject  from  the  common  experiences  and  sympathies 
of  men.  I  have  had  occasion  to  trace  the  cause  of  not  a  few 
failures  in  the  ministry,  and  am  bound  to  say  that  pedantic 
discipline  has  largely  contributed  to  many  unhappy  results. 
There  is  a  tendency  in  such  discipline  to  create  contempt 


Discipline.  7 

for  tlie  ordinary  pursuits .  of  life^  to  withdraw  men  from 
the  thoroughfares  of  the  world  and  immure  them  in 
monastic  solitude^  and  so  to  impoverish  their  ministry  of 
the  very  qualities  which  could  adapt  it  to  the  immediate 
and  most  pressing  wants  of  their  hearers.  Pedantry 
always  under-rates  reality,,  and  is  always  impatient  of 
practical  service.  It  has^  too^  a  contemptuous  tone  which 
lingers  with  empty  dignity  upon  the  hackneyed  inquiry, 
^'  Am  I  to  come  down  to  my  hearer s,  or  are  my  hearers 
to  come  up  to  me  ?  ^'  Infinite  impertinence  !  Up  to  you  ? 
Wbere  are  you?  Is  it  not  always  the  teacher^ s  place 
to  come  down,  that  he  may  take  up  his  scholars  ?  Is  it 
not  the  duty  of  the  strong  to  stoop  to  the  weak  and 
fallen,  that  they  may  be  lifted  ?  Does  the  mother  stand 
by  the  cradle  of  her  sick  child,  and  say  it  is  not  my 
business  to  come  down  to  you  but  your  business  to  come 
up  to  me  ?  Did  not  God^s  own  Son  come  down  that  He 
might  find  that  which  was  lost  ?  Who  are  you  then, 
with  your  half-educated  head  and  uneducated  heart,  to 
talk  such  idiotic  sublimity  about  people  coming  up  to 
you  !  No,  such  lofty  men  are  never  gone  up  to ;  they 
are  left  in  their  frosted  elevation :  sinning,  sorrowing 
men  leave  them ;  and  in  the  course  of  seven  years 
the  learned  nobodies  either  quit  their  denomination, 
or  write  their  honoured  names  in  the  long  list  of  unap- 
preciated though  illustrious  men,  whose  splendid  fame 
had  just  begun  to  twinkle  and  flicker  over  nearly  half 
a  street ! 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  these  remarks  are  applied 
solely  to  pedantic  discipline.  There  is  another  discipline 
to  which  every  earnest  man  will  gladly  and  thankfully  sub- 
mit himself.     You  will  find  ministers  of  competent  learn- 


8  Ad  Cterum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

ing,  wlio  are  really  liuman,  tender,  and  practical;  ministers 

whose  sermons  are  adapted  to  all  known  experiences,  and 

whose  praj^ers  are  rich  in  sympathy  and  spiritual  power. 

Instead  of  pushing  their  learning  to  the  front,  they  keep 

it  in  reserve ;    their  accomplishments   are  not   used  to 

throw  into  contrast  the  disadvantages  of  less  favoured 

brethren ;  they  act  upon  the  gracious  rule — 

"  Men  must  be  taught  as  if  you  taught  them  not, 
And  things  unknown  proposed  as  things  forgot ;  " 

and  their  reward  in  the  confidence  and  love  of  their 
people  is  great  and  lasting.  I  am  anxious  that  you 
should  take  your  place  amongst  such  ministers,  and  that 
you  may  do  so  it  is  essential  that  you  should  add  to  your 
intellectual  training  the  constant  and  vigilant  cultivation 
of  your  heart  in  the  loving  fear  of  God.  ^  Beware  of  hav- 
ing a  trained  intellect  and  a  neglected  heart ;  where  they 
co-exist  the  light  is  darkness,  and  the  darkness  is  death ; 
and  under  such  a  ministry  as  may  be  expected  from  the 
unnatural  combination  every  living  virtue  will  languish 
and  expire.  Let  me  exhort  you,  with  all  love,  to  watch 
the  life  of  your  heart ;  goodness  is  strength ;  friendship 
with  God  is  as  a  spring  of  water  which  can  never  fail ;  to 
walk  in  the  grace  and  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  go 
from  strength  to  strength,  and  to  attain  an  influence 
which  is  infinitely  better  than  the  dying  renown  which 
may  attach  to  greater  powers  than  those  with  which  you 
may  be  entrusted.    I  confess  to  a  deep  concern  upon  this 


point,  as  th^  permanence  of  your  ministry  will  depend 
upon  the  depth  and  tone  of  your  piety.  /  To  a  man  whose 
heart  is  not  right  before  God  there  will  arise  many 
temptations  to  escape  the  toil  and  disappointment  inci- 
dent to  pastoral  life  ;  and  in  the  course  of  his  attempts  to 


Disci]jline.  9 

rid  himself  of  a  necessarily  burdensome  work  lie  will  be 
driven  to  offer  pleas  and  excusatory  representations  of  his 
ministerial  position  which  will  often  imperil  his  morality. 
On  the  other  hand,  where  the  pastor  lives  in  God,  and  so 
yields  himself  implicitly  to  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  daily  growing  in  the  image  of  his  Master,  all  such 
temptations  will  be  successfully  resisted,  and  their  very 
existence  will  urge  the  pastor  to  deeper  humiliation  and 
a  still  profo under  trust  in  God^s  grace.  For  the  present, 
accept  a  loving  farewell :  I  shall  hope  great  things  of 
you  so  long  as  you  cultivate  with  devout  and  patient  care 
the  strictly  religious  side  of  your  life ;  but  if  ever  you 
neglect  it  I  shall  be  constrained  to  regard  all  your  gifts 
and  attainments  as  only  so  many  flowers  which  may 
at  once  decorate  and  conceal  a  grave.  "  I  would  not,  for 
ten  thousand  worlds,  be  that  man  who,  when  God  shall 
ask  him  at  last  how  he  has  employed  most  of  his  time 
while  he  continued  a  minister  in  His  church  and  had  the 
care  of  souls,  should  be  obliged  to  reply,  '  Lord,  I  have 
restored  many  corrupted  passages  in  the  ancient  classics, 
and  illustrated  many  which  were  before  obscure  ;  I  have 
cleared  up  many  intricacies  in  chronology  or  geography  ; 
I  have  solved  many  perplexed  cases  in  algebra ;  I  have 
refined  on  astronomical  calculations,  and  left  behind  me 
many  sheets  on  these  curious  and  difficult  subjects  where 
the  figures  and  characters  are  ranged  with  the  greatest 
exactness  and  truth :  and  these  are  the  employments  in 
which  my  life  has  been  worn  out  while  preparations  for 
the  pulpit,  or  ministrations  in  it,  did  not  demand  my 
immediate  attendance.^  Oh,  sirs,  as  for  the  waters  which 
are  drawn  from  these  springs,  how  sweetly  soever  they 
may  taste  to  a  curious  mind  that  thirsts  for  them,  or  to 


10        Ad  Clermii :    Advices  to  a  Young  Freacher. 

an  ambitious  mind  which  thirsts  for  the  applause  they 
sometimes  procure_,  I  fear  there  is  often  reason  to  pour 
them  out  before  the  Lord^  with  rivers  of  penitential  tears, 
as  the  blood  of  souls  which  have  been  forgotten,  while 
these  trifles  have  been  remembered  and  pursued/^ — Dr, 
Doddridge. 


11. 

EAENESTNESS. 

Bs  earnest;  be  natural;  be  as  unliJce  a  hooh  as  possihh 
— tliat  is  about  all  I  bave  to  say  upon  tlie  science  of 
liomiletics ;  these  are  only  beads,  bowever,  and  after  tbe 
manner  of  preacbers  you  will  look  for  a  little  expansion. 

As  to  tbe  first  bead  it  is  bappily  unnecessary  in  your 
case  tbat  anytbing  sbould  be  said  merely  in  tbe  way  of 
exbortation.  Your  young  beart  glows  witb  love  to 
Jesus  Cbrist_,  and  witb  many  a  vow  you  bave  committed 
yourself  to  tbe  boly  work  of  publisbing  His  name ;  tbis  is 
tbe  best  of  all  beginnings ;  if  you  bad  begun  elsewbere 
you  would  bave  accomplisbed  a  swift  journey  to  a  failure 
as  miscbievous  to  otbers  as  it  would  bave  been  bumiliating 
to  yourself.  Your  earnestness  is  my  cbief  joy.  Tbe 
Cross  is  tbe  strengtb  of  your  beart,  as  it  is  to  be  tbe 
tbeme  of  your  ministry ;  it  is,  you  say,  increasingly  tbe 
solution  of  tbe  mystery  of  life ;  it  comes  to  your  aid  as  an 
interpreter  of  all  sorrow,  and  gives  you  views  of  sin 
wbicb  stir  you  witb  irrepressible  desire  to  warn  men 
to  flee  from  tbe  wratb  to  come.  Tbe  manner  in  wbicb 
you  speak  of  tbe  Cross  is,  to  my  own  mind,  tbe  best 
assurance  of  tbe  success  wbicb  awaits  your  ministry  ; 
your  apostolic  entbusiasm  sball  not  be  wanting  in  apg- 
stolic  results ;  be  wbo  uplifts  tbe  Cross  sball  surely  sbaro 
tbe  exaltation  and  blessedness  of  bis  Lord.     Tbis  boly 


12         Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

earnestness  will  affect  for  good  your  entire  relation  to 
tlie  life  and  service  of  the  sanctuary,  making  you 
covetous  of  time,  impatient  of  all  trifling,  sincere  in 
sympathy,  at  once  dauntless  and  tender  in  the  exposition 
of  truth,  a  watchful  servant  and  a  brave  soldier.  There 
are  men  who  unhappily  imagine  that  it  is  necessary  to  be 
fussy  in  order  to  be  earnest,  and  who  wear  a  label  on 
which  is  written  in  coloured  letters,  '^  This  is  an  earnest 
man  ! "  When  a  man  is  really  earnest  he  needs  no 
label ;  he  is  a  living  epistle ;  his  whole  life  is  his  com- 
mendation. The  most  earnest  men  whom  I  have  ever 
known,  whether  in  business  or  in  the  ministry,  have  made 
their  earnestness /e?^  rather  than  heard  ;  to  be  within  the 
circle  of  their  influence  was  to  know  that  there  was  going 
out  of  them  a  constant  and  heavy  expenditure  of  life,  and 
that  all  their  powers  were  steadfastly  set  in  one  un- 
changing direction.  They  have  made  this /eZ^,  not  by  the 
production  of  diaries  or  memoranda  of  service  and  en- 
gagement, but  by  an  influence  at  once  penetrating  and 
inexplicable.  It  is  very  remarkable  too  that  such  men 
have  been  able  to  secure  a  tranquillity  which  has  led  heed- 
less observers  to  infer  that  they  were  but  little  in  earnest 
about  anything, — they  were  so  quiet,  so  methodical,  so  un- 
hurried !  On  the  other  hand  there  have  been  fussy  and 
effusive  men  who  have  acquired  a  great  reputation  for 
earnestness,  when  they  should  justly  have  had  a  name 
for  making  a  great  noise  and  a  great  dust.  Such  men 
have  generally  lost  themselves  in  petty  details ;  they  have 
no  clear  plan,  no  broad  and  far-reaching  lines  of  move- 
^^ent;  their  programme  is  made  up  of  hop,  skip,  and 
jump,  whimsically  varied  with  jump,  skip,  and  hop;  you 
will  have  no  difficulty  in  identifying  the  men  when  you 


Earnestness.  13 

have  to  suffer  from  the  noise  and  dust  in  which  their 
shallow  lives  are  wasted,  but  you  may  have  a  momentary 
difficulty  in  clearing  your  way  of  their  vexatious  intru- 
sion. The  fact  that  there  is  a  spurious  as  well  as  a 
genuine  enthusiasm  leads  me  to  detain  you  with  a  few 
remarks,  not  so  much  upon  earnestness  itself  as  upon 
three  methods  of  it  with  which  you  ought  to  be  familiar  : 
these  three  methods  may  be  described  as  the  Dental,  the 
Porous,  and  the  Cordial. 

The  Dental  method  of  earnestness  goes  a  long  way 
with  people  who  keep  their  eyes  shut.  The  Eev.  Mr. 
Osted  was  an  eminent  example  of  this  method  some 
twenty  years  ago.  That  active  and  most  garrulous  man 
never,  to  the  best  of  my  belief,  spoke  one  word  from  Lis 
heart ;  and  this  is  saying  a  good  deal,  for  the  words  which 
he  spoke  were  as  the  sand  upon  the  seashore,  innumerable. 
He  could  have  preached  four  times  not  only  on  Sunday, 
but  on  every  day  of  the  week ;  and  could  have  visited  all 
sorts  of  people  between  the  services,  without  so  much,  as 
drivers  say,  having  one  turned  hair.  Never  a  word  came 
from  beyond  his  teeth.  With  a  scrupulous  equity  worthy 
of  a  better  cause,  Mr.  Osted  spoke  in  the  same  key 
whether  at  a  wedding  or  a  funeral,  and  with  an  impar- 
tiality truly  severe  accosted  age  and  infancy  with  the 
same  monotonous  civility.  Words  !  why,  sir,  they  never 
failed ;  when  the  apostle  said  ^'  whether  there  be  tongues 
they  shall  cease,''''  he  did  not  know  that  Mr.  Osted  was 
among  the  blessings  of  the  future,  though  he  might  have 
suspected  this  fact  when  he  predicted  that  "  knowledge 
shall  vanish  away."*^  You  have  seen  a  hailstorm  ?  Yes, 
but  no  hailstorm  was  ever  a  match  for  Mr.  Osted^s 
tongue  ;  and  yet  never   a   word  came   from  beyond  his 


14        Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

teetli !  I  have  seen  Mm  in  a  sick  room  every  day  for  a 
month,  but  never  a  word  came  from  his  heart, — all  dental, 
dental,  dental !  Whilst  he  was  addressing  the  patient 
his  dry  and  eager  eyes  would  be  examining  everything 
in  the  room,  and  the  sweetest,  tenderest  words  of  all 
God^s  promises  would  almost  stiffen  on  his  freezing  lips; 
in  fact,  they  ceased  to  be  promises  and  became  mere 
expressions,  without  unction  or  emphasis.  Often  have  I 
turned  from  him  with  ill-disguised  detestation ;  yet  the 
attendant  ladies,  having  listened  to  his  insipid  common- 
places, have  blessed  him  for  his  earnestness,  and  said  to 
me  in  his  absence,  ''  He  is  such  a  good  man,  he  comes 
every  day,  wet  or  fine/''  My  enforced  silence  under  such 
circumstances  was  excellent  self- discipline  ;  I  knew  that 
Mr.  Osted^s  service  cost  him  nothing  either  in  heart 
or  brain, — not  a  nerve  throbbed  for  it,  not  a  pulse  beat 
the  quicker  for  it ;  and  yet  the  unsuspecting  ladies 
cherished  his  name  with  the  most  affectionate  thankful- 
ness. I  could  have  denounced  the  sham  in  fittiog  terms, 
but  for  fear  of  injuring  the  venerated  sufferer  beside  whose 
bed  I  had  to  sit  and  weep  many  a  day.  When  Osted  read 
the  Scriptures  there  seemed  not  to  be  any  message  in 
them  for  all  the  sorrow  of  our  home,  nothing  as  if  it  had 
been  written  on  purpose  for  us;  and  when  he  prayed 
there  never  came  any  great  expectation  into  the  heart  of 
the  listener  :  words,  words,  words,  0  for  one  tone  of  the 
heart,  one  sigh  of  sympathy  !  but  that  luxury  was  denied 
us  in  the  person  of  our  pastor.  Sometimes  I  asked 
another  minister  resident  in  the  town  to  call  upon  the 
sufferer,  and  the  beaming  of  his  benign  countenance  was 
to  me  like  the  coming  of  a  long-looked-for  morning.  He 
was.  with  us  as  the  servant  of  God ;  under  his  reading  the 


Earnestness,  15 

lioly  book  became  our  oiun  in  a  most  special  sense_,  and 
when  he  prayed  God  seemed  to  be  quite  near.  Yet  this 
better  man  was  never  so  popular  as  Mr.  Osted^  for  when 
was  the  deep,  true,  great  heart  any  match  for  a  garrulous 
and  untiring  tongue?  I  felt  that  Osted  could  have 
spoken  quite  as  easily  into  an  empty  barrel,  if  he  had 
been  paid  for  it,  as  ever  he  spoke  to  his  congregation; 
and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he  would  have  gone 
quite  as  comfortably  to  a  funeral  as  to  a  wedding,  pro- 
vided that  the  effect  upon  his  pew-rents  would  have  been 
the  same  in  both  cases.  He  was  a  very  earnest  man  was 
Mr.  Osted, — very  !  "  Most  unremitting  in  his  attendance 
upon  the  sick,"*^  ^'  never  tired,^^  "  always  had  a  word  in 
season,'^  ^'  never  off  his  legs,^^ — such  are  the  words  which 
you  may  hear  about  him  in  the  houses  of  those  who  at- 
tended his  dental  ministry.  Mr.  Osted  was  a  devoted 
denominationalist ;  in  fact,  he  was  somewhat  of  a  bigot ; 
he  was  great  on  committees,  so  great  that  he  could  wear 
out  the  strongest  of  his  rivals.  He  was  keen  too  in 
committee  law,  so  keen  as  to  be  quite  the  terror  of 
young  members.  Twenty  times  in  the  course  of  one 
meeting  would  the  watchful  Osted  dentally  interpose, — 
"Mr.  Chairman,  I  rise  to  order,^^  "Mr.  Chairman,  I  do 
contend,''^  "  Mr.  Chairman,  I  must  be  allowed  to  explain,^^ 
"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  beg  to  move  as  an  amendment/^  and 
by  this  fussy  and  meddlesome  method  of  interrupting 
everybody  he  earned  for  himself  the  reputation  of  being 
a  very  active  and  earnest'  member  of  the  committee  !  No 
man  of  ordinary  shrewdness  was  ever  deluded  into  the 
notion  that  Mr.  Osted  was  a  legislator  ;  but  for  moving 
amendments,  seconding  resolutions,  suggesting  expe- 
dients, nominatiug  deputations,  and  pestering  secretaries. 


1 6        Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preache) . 

he  was  generally  acknowledged  not  to  have  an  equal  in 
the  county  which  he  honoured  with  his  dental  service. 

N'ow_,  sir^  this  is  the  dental  method  of  earnestness  ;  and 
I  need  hardly  add  that  you  ought  to  be  on  your  guard 
against  it.  Suspect  the  men  who  practise  this  method, 
and  avoid  them  !  They  will  make  a  tool  of  you ;  they  will 
conduct  experiments  with  you ;  and  if  you  go  too  near  the 
fire  they  will  let  you  drop  in,  and  then  turn  upon  their 
heel  as  if  they  had  always  thought  you  a  fool.  My  heart 
aches  when  I  think  of  the  possibility  of  warm-hearted 
young  ministers  falling  under  the  influence  of  such  men ; 
they  are  quite  without  nobility  of  feeling,  they  can  say 
the  brotherly  word  without  the  brotherly  trust,  their 
civility  is  as  measured  as  if  it  were  determined  by  Act  of 
Parliament,  and  their  patronage  would  be  intolerable  but 
for  the  condescension  which  is  so  overdone  as  to  render 
itself  both  harmless  and  laughable.  I  have  had  much  to 
do  with  such  men.  Having  leaned  upon  them  I  know 
them  as  broken  staves ;  having  watched  them  in  the 
storm  I  know  with  what  ease  they  can  set  themselves  to 
the  wind ;  and  having  carefully  examined  their  work  I 
can  assure  you  it  is  not  pleasant  to  look  below  the  surface. 
Once  for  all,  I  repeat,  suspect  and  avoid  the  dental 
method  of  earnestness. 

The  Porous  method  is  not  illustrated  so  frequently  now 
as  it  was  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  though  a  few  very 
conspicuous  examples  occur  to  me  at  this  moment, — 
examples  of  living  and  accountable  persons  whose  en- 
thusiasm is  simply  a  question  of  porousness.  My  fancy 
turns  at  once  to  a  very  ponderous  brother,  whose  voice  is 
like  a  clap  of  thunder,  and  whose  vast  bodily  amplification 
has  caused  some  one  to  say  descriptively  that  ''  he  carries 


Earnestness.  1 7 

all  before  him/'  For  tlie  sake  of  easy  reference  I  shall 
call  him  Mr.  Bodens.  The  manner  in  which  that  earnest 
gentleman  exhausts  himself  in  the  pulpit  is  little  short  of 
alarming.  No  ploughman  ever  gasped  as  he  gasps ;  no 
ironfounder  ever  sweltered  at  his  furnace  as  Mr.  Bodens 
swelters  in  the  pulpit ;  his  eloquence  is  a  continual  at- 
tempt at  suicide^  and  his  climaxes  constantly  suggest  the 
possibility  of  a  coroner^ s  inquest.  You  will  understand 
this  when  I  tell  you  that  his  introduction  always  brings 
out  handkerchief  number  one ;  his  first  head  never  fails 
to  cover  his  face  with  the  most  varied  streaks,,  which 
handkerchief  number  two  vainly  attempts  to  remove ;  the 
first  subdivision  under  the  second  head  brings  on  a  style 
of  breathing  which  can  be  accounted  for  only  by  internal 
agonies  of  the  extremest  poignancy ;  and  the  ^^  one  word 
more  in  conclusion/'  which  always  comes  in  immediately 
before  "  finally/'  drops  in  faint  accents  from  a  man  whose 
earnestness  has  reduced  him  to  a  state  of  semi-liquefac- 
tion. His  repute  for  earnestness  is  very  high.  He  is 
spoken  of  by  the  gentler  members  of  his  congregation  as 
"  never  sparing  himself/'  ^^  extremely  energetic/'  ^'  deeply 
devoted/'  and  so  forth.  '^  Poor  man/'  they  say^  "  he 
does  labour  so  when  he  preaches  ;"  "  dear  man^  he  never 
seems  to  consider  himself ,  he  quite  wrestles  with  his 
hearers,  he  is  so  very  earnest ; "  and  all  this  they  say 
mth  sincere  esteem  for  Mr.  Bodens  and  his  preaching. 
I  have  heard  it  again  and  again,  and  answered  with  a 
most  ambiguous  sigh.  From  this  description  you  will 
infer  that  Mr.  Bodens  is  a  hard-working  man,  but  I  am 
bound  to  deny  the  generous  inference.  There  is  not  a 
stroke  of  hard  work  in  him.  To  begin  with,  you  cannot 
call  him  a  hard  reader;   for  beyond  a  few  volumes  of 

c 


18         Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

"  skeletons  "  lie  lias  no  library ;  you  cannot  call  Mm  a 
liard  student^  for  lie  has  often  said  tliat  lie  never  "  medi- 
tates '^  but  wben  in  bed ;  and  bow  far  he  is  capable  of 
meditating  there  you  may  judge  from  the  fact  that  in  his 
opinion  ^^steaks  and  oysters  are  a  supper  for  a  king/^  and 
that  he  enjoys  the  said  supper  as  often  as  his  funds  will 
allow.  But  though  Mr.  Bodens  is  neither  a  hard  reader 
nor  a  hard  student  there  is  a  sense  in  which  he  does  a 
good  deal  of  work,  and  this  ought  in  bare  justice  to  be 
distinctly  pointed  out.  As  one  of  his  congregation  once 
observed  to  me  in  a  tone  of  much  satisfaction,  "Mr.  Bodens 
you  see,  sir,  is  always  on  the  move ;"  the  good  man 
evidently  thought  that  to  be  "  always  on  the  move  ''  was 
the  perfection  of  industry,  and  that  silent  contemplation 
was  "  a  sort  of  mental  disease  like,  you  know,  and  all  that 
sort  of  thing,^'  a  lucid  theory  which  had  a  remarkably 
soothing  effect  upon  his  own  active  mind.  I  was  struck 
with  the  theory  so  very  forcibly  that  1  made  it  the  begin- 
ning of  a  conversation. 

"  I  am  told,  Mr.  Bodens,^''  said  I,  ^^  that  you  are  always 
on  the  move  V  I  purposely  heightened  the  last  word  so 
as  to  throw  the  report  into  an  interrogative  form. 

"Why,  you  see,  sir,^'  he  repUed,  rounding  himself  to 
his  full  compass,  and  speaking  with  instantaneous  emo- 
tion, "  my  forte,  I  may  say  without  boasting,  is  calling 
upon  the  flock.''' 

"You  liJce  it  ?'"'  I  replied,  in  a  lighb  questioning  tone. 

"  I  look  upon  it,  sir,  as  one  may  say,  in  the  light  of 
duty  combined  with  pleasure. ■'' 

"  That  's  it,  is  it  V  said  I,  without  committing  myself 
to  any  particular  opinion, 

"It  is,  sir,  it  is;  you  see,  my  brother,'^  Mr.  Bodens 


Earnestness.  19 

continued  in  the  style  of  a  lecturer  on  homileticSj  '^it 
helps  the  preachings  it  makes  my  discourses  practical 
and  useful." 

"  Don't  see  it/'  said  I. 

"  Don't  see  it^  sir  ?  Why  the  thing  is  patent,,  sir^ 
quite  patent ;  how  can  you  help  seeing  it  ?" 

'^  Prove  it/'  said  I,  quite  in  a  challenging  manner. 

"  Prove  it  ?  Ah^  my  dear  sir^  no  young  minister  would 
have  said  that  at  the  time  when  I  began  my  ministry, 
and  that  will  be  five  and  thirty  years  ago  next  midsum- 
mer; my  old  professor  always  told  me  to  visit  the  flock, 
and  I  should  be  sure  to  succeed  in  my  work." 

^^  Come  now,  Mr.  Bodens/'  said  I,  ^'^tell  me  plainly 
what  good  all  this  visiting  does." 

'^  Good  ?  Why,  sir,  look  how  it  promotes  a  happy 
union  between  the  pastor  and  his  flock  !  " 

'■''  Then  do  you  mean  to  say  that  your  people  like  that 
sort  of  thing  ?  "  I  inquired. 

At  this  point  Mr.  Bodens  took  from  his  pocket  hand- 
kerchief number  one,  and  then  replied,  ^'  Sort  of  thing, 
sir  ?  what  sort  of  thing  are  you  talking  about  ?  " 

"  Why,  visiting,"  said  I ;  "do  you  seriously  say  that 
your  people  like  it  ?  " 

"  I  say  more  than  that,  sir,"  Mr.  Bodens  haughtily 
replied,  drawing  handkerchief  number  one  across  his 
pudgey  and  wrinkled  brow;  "I  say,  sir,  that  they  not 
only  like  it,  they  positively  demand  it."  Mr.  Bodens 
pronounced  the  word  "  demand,"  as  if  it  involved  a 
subpoena,  and  then  looked  at  me  with  a  steady  and 
piercing  eye. 

Not  wishing  to  go  too  far  with  the  old  gentleman,  and 
observing  alread}^  a  faint   foreshadowing   of  the  streaks 

c  2 


20        Ad  Cleriim  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Freacher. 

wliicli  accompany  the  demonstration  of  liis  first  head,  I 
fell  into  a  conciliatory  and  appreciative  tone  which  quite 
pleased  him. 

'^  I  should  infer,  then/'  said  I,  with  winning  blandness, 
^''that  you  have  a  hospitable  people  ?" 

This  was  the  right  word ;  you  should  have  seen  the 
glitter  of  his  half-buried  eye  !  He  turned  round,  as  if 
to  assure  himself  that  we  were  quite  alone,  and  then 
laying  his  hand  upon  my  shoulder  he  said  impressively — 
''  Brother,  they  are  I '' 

I  nodded  vehemently,  as  if  I  had  received  an  ample 
explanation. 

^'  Hospitable  ?  "  Mr.  Bodens  continued  without  chang- 
ing his  attitude,  ^'  can  you  take  a  word  in  confidence  ? 
In  confidence  as  between  brother  and  brother,  or  as  one 
may  say  between  father  and  son?^'  He  then  retired  a 
pace,  as  if  to  see  how  that  idea  afiected  me  generally. 

"  No  doubt  of  it,''  said  I,  ^^  provided  it  is  nothing  very 
alarming,  and  provided  the  vow  is  not  binding  after  your 
death." 

^'  Then,"  said  he,  "  look  here  :  just  by  way  of  curiosity 
I  kept  a  memorandum  of  one  week's  hospitality ;  now 
read  that  if  you  wish  to  know  the  terms  upon  which  I 
live  with  my  dear  people." 

'^  Will  you  read  it,  sir,  as  I  am  not  good  at  making 
out  other  people's  writing  ?  " 

Mr.  Bodens  read.  There  was  unction  in  Mr.  Bodens' 
voice  ;  there  was  light  in  Mr.  Bodens'  eye ;  in  one  word, 
Mr.  Bodens  was  himself.     I  quote  the  memorandum  : — 

"  Monday  :  dined  at  H's  ;  everything  in  season  was  on 
the  table ;  opened  a  new  lot  of  white  wine.  Tuesday  : 
tea  and  supper  at  B's ;  a  splendid  game  pie  to  supper 


Earnestness.  21 

tliat  would  not  cost  a  penny  less  tlian  tliree  pounds ;  Mrs. 
B.  had  set  aside  a  few  prime  Wliitstables  for  my  special 
benefit,  a  kind  creature.  Wednesday  :  lunched  with  F., 
who  insisted  upon  opening  a  small  barrel  of  natives  ;  F. 
is  very  unselfish  and  amusing,  and  would  insist  upon  my 
having  an  extra  dozen  in  honour  of  an  event  which  had 
taken  place  in  his  house  on  the  previous  day.  Thursday: 
paid  eight  visits,  and  supped  with  D.  at  the  club;  D.  is  a 
liboral  friend,  nothing  cold  would  do  for  him,  everything 
was  steaming  hot.  Friday  :  took  an  early  dinner  in  the 
Park  j  the  table  was  quite  a  picture ;  a  finer  display  of 
choice  meats  I  never  saw.  Saturday,  of  coui'se,^^  Mr. 
Bodens  added,  "  was  spent  at  home.''^ 

''  Well,'^  said  I,  "  there  ■'s  no  sign  of  famine  in  your 
note-book.^' 

"What^s  the  consequence  ?'''  said  Mr.  Bodens,  as  if 
about  to  establish  a  moral. 

^^  Probably  bursting/'  I  replied  suggestively. 

Mr.  Bodens  was  shocked  at  this  levity ;  he  evidently 
regarded  it  as  quite  out  of  season.  That  earnest  man 
never  laughed.  Life  was  too  serious  a  business  with 
him  to  admit  of  any  pleasantry,  however  mild  its  form. 
Under  the  influence  of  my  flippant  answer,  he  turned 
himself  quite  round,  so  as  to  give  me  a  complete  view 
of  his  magnificent  back,  and  personal  inspection  enables 
me  to  say  authoritatively  that  in  all  respects  it  was 
worthy  of  the  memorandum-book.  I  felt  the  force  of 
the  reproof,  or  rather  I  saw  it ;  to  have  felt  it  would  have 
been  death  upon  the  spot. 

^^  Pardon  me,'^  said  I,  "  it  was  quite  a  slip  of  the 
tongue;  tell  me  what  the  consequence  really  is.'' 

Mr.  Bodens  looked  at  me  with  much  doubtfulness,  as 


22         Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

if  unable  to  forgive  tlie  liard-liearted  suggestion  all  at 
once. 

^'  Seriously/^  I  continued,,  "  I  wisli  to  know  tlie  con- 
sequence/^ 

'^  Consequence  is^  sir^  according  to  tlie  old  proverb^  a 
house-going  minister  makes  a  cliurch- going  peoj^le ;  and 
I  can  prove  that  to  be  the  case^  for  there  is  not  a  seat 
in  all  our  chapel  to  be  let,  not  one,  sir,  even  if  the  king 
himself  wanted  it  V 

"  But,  Mr.  Bodens,  if  you  will  excuse  me,  may  I  ask 
when  you  find  time  to  study  ?  '' 

^'  Study,  sir  ?  ■''  he  replied,  ^'^  who  wants  so  much  study  ? 
Study  your  people,  say  I;  go  amongst  them  as  a  shepherd 
among  the  flock ;  study  their  ways ;  make  yourself 
acquainted  with  their  wants ;  and  you  can  easily  write 
out  a  skeleton  or  two  on  Saturday  night.^'' 

^'  Is  it  right  then,^'  I  inquired,  ^'  to  eat  so  many  fat 
things,  and  to  pay  for  them  with  a  skeleton  ? '' 

That  was  a  fatal  imprudence  on  my  part.  Mr.  Bodens 
gave  me  a  stern  and  devouring  look,  and  went  away  as 
rapidly  as  so  vast  a  personage  could  move.  I  watched 
his  conspicuous  figure  until  it  was  out  of  sight,  and  that, 
as  you  may  suppose,  was  a  considerable  part  of  a  lifetime. 
You  will  not  wonder  after  this  that  Mr.  Bodens  liquefied 
a  good  deal  in  his  preaching,  nor  will  you  readily  believe 
that  he  perished  as  a  martyr  to  the  cause.  Last  of  all, 
however,  Mr.  Bodens  died  also,  died  of  the  memorandum- 
book.  To  the  very  end  he  was  spoken  of  as  an  earnest' 
preacher,  and  even  to  this  day  there  are  old  members  of 
his  congregation  who  reverently  recall  the  occasions 
when  Mr.  Bodens  was  so  exhausted  with  preaching  as 
hardly  to  be  able  to  get  into  the  vestry  in  the  customary 


Earnestness.  23 

manner  of  solid  bodies.     When  lie  died  lie  left  a  great 
blank. 

By  tbe  Cordial  method  of  earnestness  is  meant,  of 
course,  the  method  of  the  heart.  We  must  be  earnest 
as  Christians  before  we  can  be  earnest  as  ministers.  How 
can  our  work  be  right  if  our  heart  be  wrong  ?  And  how 
can  our  heart  be  made  right  but  by  constant  watching  at 
the  cross  ?  Though  we  are  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ 
yet  we  are  poor  sinners,  our  salvation  is  not  in  ourselves 
but  in  the  Son  of  God ;  and  if  for  a  moment  we  imagine 
that  our  ministry  involves  an  exemption  from  the  low- 
liness and  contrition  which  become  guilty  men,  we  fall 
from  grace  and  our  strength  is  withered.  When  we 
come  from  the  cross  heart-broken,  and  yet  glad  in  the 
salvation  which  has  been  wrought  for  us,  our  words  will 
be  simple,  our  manners  will  be  natural,  and  our  tone  will 
be  none  the  less  persuasive  because  it  falters  with  the 
emotion  of  thankfulness  for  our  redemption.  Truly,  our 
weakness  is  our  strength ;  when  we  feel  our  own  nothing- 
ness the  grace  of  Christ  is  most  magnified  in  our  hearts ; 
and  when  the  shallow  channel  of  our  invented  eloquence 
is  quite  dry,  God  gives  us  His  word  as  a  well  of  water 
whose  springs  never  fail.  Out  of  this  earnestness  will 
come  a  simplicity  which  cannot  be  misunderstood,  a 
candour  which  is  above  suspicion,  and  an  independence 
as  superior  to  flattery  as  it  is  scornful  of  intimidation. 
^  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the 
issues  of  life.'''  To  fail  there,  it  is  to  fail  altogether  ! 
"  Take  heed  to  thyself,  and  keep  thy  soul  diligently,  lest 
thou  forget  the  things  which  thine  eyes  have  seen,  and 
lest  they  depart  from  thy  heart  all  the  days  of  thy  life.''' 
See  how  we  are  thus  urged  to  personal  consecration ! 


24         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier. 

What  is  our  standing  before  God  ?  Is  our  love  deep  as 
our  life^  or  is  it  but  a  transient  impulse  ?  Is  Jesus  Christ 
merely  a  theme  to  be  talked  about^  or  is  He  the  strength 
of  our  heart  and  our  portion  for  ever  ?  Is  our  Christian 
experience  a  luxury  with  which  we  pamper  our  selfishness, 
or  does  it  constrain  us  to  abundant  service  such  as  no 
hireling  would  ever  undertake  ?  These  are  questions 
which  call  us  into  the  secrecy  and  terribleness  of  Divine 
judgment. 


111. 

NATURALNESS. 

Be  natural j  and  be  as  unlike  a  hooh  as  jpossihlej  are  tlie 
two  heads  whicli  are  now  to  be  discussed.  To  be  natural 
is  to  be  yourself  in  look,  in  speecb,  in  action;  provided 
always  that  you  have  a  self  upon  whicli  nature  has 
stamped  her  own  simple  and  graceful  impress.  If  the 
expression  may  be  allowed,  some  preachers  seem  to  have 
a  very  unnatural  nature ;  in  their  case  a  good  deal  of 
grinding  and  polishing  may  have  to  be  done  before  they 
can  be  safely  trusted  with  the  advice  to  be  themselves. 
An  illustrative  case  occurs  to  me  at  this  moment :  a 
ministerial  acquaintance  of  mine  is  entirely  innocent  of 
imitating  any  one,  yet  a  more  unnatural  speaker  never 
addressed  an  audience — never;  "only  himself  can  be 
his  parallel;'^  for  fluency,  pomposity,  and  inflation  he 
stands  alone ;  he  can  talk  by  the  hour  together  in  a  most 
deafening  and  terrifying  manner,  and  when  he  has  done 
the  acutest  hearer  may  be  safely  challenged  to  repeat,  or 
even  hint  at,  one  sentence  which  has  been  uttered.  No 
mill-wheel  was  ever  so  monotonously  energetic ;  no  barrel 
organ  was  ever  so  incapable  of  being  worn  out ;  no  furnace 
fire  ever  tore  up  the  chimney  at  so  desperate  a  rate.  The 
manner  of  my  reverend  acquaintance  is  nobly  independ- 
ent of  the  spirit  or  importance  of  the  subject  which  he 
undertakes  to  discuss ;  he  holds  such  discrimination  in 


26         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a   Young  Preacher. 

dignified  abhorrence ;  with  a  lofty  impartiality  he  creates 
an  equal  volume  of  smoke  around  every  theme  which  he 
attempts  to  expound,  and  in  doing  so  assumes  the  air  of 
a  righteous  man.  My  unnatural  acquaintance  is  quite  as 
eloquent  in  giving  his  opinion  whether  a  ministerial 
dinner  should  cost  one  and  sixpence  or  one  and  nine- 
pence,  as  when  describing  the  creation  of  man  or  the 
battle  of  Armageddon.  Can  anything  be  finer  in  the 
way  of  even-handed  justice  ?  Does  an  express  train  care 
a  pin  whether  it  is  carrying  one  passenger  or  ten,  except 
that  it  may  go  fastest  when  it  has  least  to  do  ?  Certainly 
not;  and  my  acquaintance  is  exactly  an  express  train 
without  passengers,  but  not  without  a  furious  driver.  I 
have  heard  him  give  a  public  announcement  of  a  tea- 
meeting,  tickets  ninepence  each,  in  a  manner  quite  as 
solemn  and  urgent  as  if  in  one  hurried  breath  he  had  been 
announcing  that  there  was  a  flood  in  England,  a  fire  in 
Scotland,  and  an  earthquake  half  over  the  continent  of 
Europe.  The  consequence  was  that  no  timid  persons 
ventured  to  go  near  the  tea-meeting,  and  not  more  than 
half  a  dozen  adventurous  youths  took  a  ninepenny  ticket 
each,  in  order  to  see  what  was  going  to  happen  !  He 
cannot  be  easy ;  he  cannot  lower  his  pompous  tone  to  an 
ordinary  key;  if  he  were  to  ask  a  chambermaid  for  a 
candle,  he  would  leave  upon  her  mind  the  impression 
that  the  morning  would  rise  upon  the  smoking  ruins  of 
the  house.  No  doubt  of  it,  there  is  a  frightful  emphasis 
in  his  manner  which  makes  havoc  of  the  common  mind. 
In  private  life  his  grandiloquence  is  overpowering,  so 
much  so  that  when  I  see  him  in  the  distance  I  thankfully 
avail  myself  of  the  next  turning  to  the  left;  wherever  it 
may  lead  to. 


Naturalness.  27 

"  Well,,  madam/^  he  said^  addressing  my  wife  one  day- 
late  in  Aprilj  ''  the  days  are  gradually  attaining  a  very 
agreeable  continuity/'' 

With  a  most  reprehensible  simplicity  my  bewildered 
wife  merely  answered,  Yes. 

"  The  services,  madam/"*  he  continued,  ^'  which  are 
now  in  contemplation  will  be  sustained  under  auspices  of 
a  character  decidedly  flattering  to  our  denominational 
status/'' 

With  scandalous  absence  of  mind  my  wife  amiably 
replied,  ^^  Indeed/^ 

^'  Quite  so,  madam ;  not  only  the  worshipful  the  mayor, 
but  also  the  whole  corporation,  arrayed  in  full  official 
costume,  will  condescend  to  honour  us  with  their  patron- 
age, and  I  do  fervently  hope  that  we  may  be  favoured 
firmamentally  as  well  as  municipally/'' 

Now  when  a  man  talks  in  this  manner  about  the  anni- 
versary of  a  ragged  school,  what  may  you  expect  when 
he  begins  to  preach  ?  Happily,  in  this  case  you  have 
nothing  worse  to  expect,  for  the  impartial  speaker  pursues 
an  undeviating  course  of  grandiloquent  declamation. 
He  knows  nothing  of  the  charm  of  variety,  nothing  of 
the  distribution  of  light  and  shade,  nothing  of  the  grace- 
ful undulation  which  at  once  relieves  and  delights  the 
mind.  Let  this  man  then  be  a  caution  to  you ;  in  that 
way  he  may  even  yet  be  turned  to  a  good  purpose,  the 
only  good  purpose  I  am  afraid  which  he  can  now  serve. 
You  will  not  understand  me  as  undervaluing  the  integrity 
and  earnestness  of  this  unfortunate  brother.  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  he  writes  two  sermons  fully  out, 
even  to  the  Amen,  every  week,  and  that  he  sets  them  to 
the  lively  tune  of  the  whirlwind,  and  that  every  Monday 


28         Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a   Young  Freacher. 

lie  complains  (and  not  wltliout  reason)  of  being  fatigued  ; 
and  I  liave  understood  that  a  feeling  of  '^  Mondayish- 
ness  "  is  not  uncommon  with  the  congregation  as  well 
as  with  the  preacher  :  under  all  these  circumstances  it  is 
only  proper  that  hard  work  should  be  spoken  off  with  all 
deserved  respect. 

Another  acquaintance  of  mine  exhibits  quite  a  different 
phase  of  unnaturalness^  a  phase  which  would  be  immoral 
if  it  were  not  so  intensely  farcical.  Mr.  Dexter  (such  is 
the  name  destined  to  a  splendid  renown)  feels  himself 
called  upon  to  attempt  a  reproduction  of  Mr.  Binney,  for 
the  advantage  of  his  rural  congregation.  \Mr.  Dexter  is 
Mr.  Binney  upon  a  miniature  scale^  very  miniature  indeed  ! 
Though  Mr.  Dexter^s  sight  is  as  good  as  yours,,  he  thinks 
it  part  of  his  vocation  to  use  an  eye-glass  set  in  a  gold 
frame ;  said  eye-glass  is  thought  not  only  to  give  a 
knowing  look  to  young  preachers^  but  to  convey  a  pro- 
found impression  about  late  hours^  deep  studies^  and 
ministerial  martyrdom, — in  fact  to  present,  without  undue 
ostentation,  a  bird^s-eye  view  of  what  may  be  called  the 
tragic  side  of  student  life.  (  Mr.  Dexter  knows  how  Mr. 
Binney's  eye-glass  is  occasionally  used ;  consequently 
before  announcing  his  text  he  does  a  little  polishing  upon 
that  optical  instrument,  during  which  he  darts  his  furtive 
glance  at  the  congregation,  partly  in  an  observant  and 
partly  in  a  threatening  manner.  Mr.  Dexter  knows  how 
Mr.  Binney  occasionally  says  more  by  the  significant 
motion  of  his  hand  than  could  be  said  in  so  many  words ; 
consequently  Mr.  Dexter  finishes  his  introduction  with  a 
grotesque  flourish  of  his  hand,  and  completes  the  third 
head  by  extending  his  first  finger  in  the  direction  of  the 
north-west    angle  of    the  meeting-house.       Under   this 


Naturalness.  29 

graphic  attitudinising  tlie  rural  hearers  often  quail,  be- 
cause,  as  tliey  say_,  it  leaves  so  mucli  to  be  understood. 

"  That  ''s  it,  sir/^  said  one  of  his  hearers  to  me  ;  "  you 
see  his  thoughts  are  too  great  for  words,  and  when  that 
finger  of  his  goes  up  you  may  be  sure  something  is 
meant. •'^ 

''  You  know  that  for  a  fact  V   said  I. 

"  Known  it  long  enough,  sir,  in  fact  we  have  all  known 
it ;  why  there  ^s  my  little  boy,  only  five  years  old,  gets  on 
the  table  and  mimics  Mr.  Dexter  to  perfection/^ 

^^  And  you  really  think  that  such  gestures  do  good,  do 
you?^^  I  inquired. 

"  They  do  good  in  this  way,  sir,  you  see,"  he  answered ; 
"  they  set  people  a-thinking  ;  our  people  begin  a-saying 
to  one  another,  ^  now  whatever  did  Mr.  Dexter  mean  when 
he  shot  out  his  hand  in  that  way,  so  sharp  and  sudden 
like  ?  ^  And  then  one  says  one  thing,  and  another  says 
another,  and  so  they  keep  coming  and  coming,  and  watch- 
ing and  watching,  d'ye  see  ?  '' 

"  Then  Mr.  Dexter  does  that  sort  of  thing  pretty  re- 
gularly, does  he  ? '' 

'''Every  Sunday,  sir;  it  wouldn't  be  like  Sunday  if  he 
didn't  do  it ;  my  word,  but  sometimes  he  does  come  out 
with  jerks  and  twitches  that  are  capital ;  he  like  lays  his 
hand  upon  something,  and  clutches  it  as  if  he  would 
never  let  go  !  " 

Thus  Mr.  Dexter  caricatures  and  debases  the  original. 
He  forgets  that  what  may  be  natural  in  Mr.  Binney,  with 
his  lofty  stature  and  beaming  countenance  (a  countenance 
of  rare  dignity  and  expressiveness),  may  be  absurdly 
grotesque  in  anybody  else,  and  especially  absurd  in  a 
man  little  more  than  five  feet  high,  with  a  face  that  was 


30        Ad  Cleriim  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

intended  to  adorn  a  very  small  liaberdasliery  establish- 
ment^ in  a  very  small  back  street,,  in  a  very  small  market 
town. 

^'  Why  they  tell  me/'  said  one  of  his  admiring  hea-rers, 
^^  that  our  Mr.  Dexter  is  very  like  the  great  Binney !  '^ 

"  Indeed/'  said  I ;  ''  did  you  ever  see  the  great 
Binney  ?  '' 

^'  Oh  no^  no ;  but  them  as  has  seen  him  has  told  me  so 
more  nor  once.'"' 

^'  In  what  way  then/'  I  inquired^  "  is  Mr.  Dexter 
thought  to  be  like  Mr.  Binney  ?  " 

^^  Why  in  his  way  o'  going  on^  a-pointing  and  a-twitch- 
ing,  and  such  like." 

Such  is  the  penalty  of  popularity  !  Dogs  paint  them- 
selves tawny,  and  then  set  up  for  lions;  dwarfs  buy 
high-heeled  boots,  and  give  themselves  out  as  giants. 
There  are  many  who  imitate  Mr.  Binney's  mannerism 
who  know  nothing  of  his  wonderful  insight  and  spi- 
rituality ;  they  think  that  when  they  have  borrowed  his 
hat  they  have  also  borrowed  his  brains.  Yes,  that  is  their 
trick.  You  have  heard  of  maiden  ladies  who  have  lived 
by  themselves  in  lonely  houses,  setting  a  number  of 
men's  hats  upon  the  hall  tables  at  nights,  so  as  to  give 
any  intruder  the  notion  that  the  house  was  full  of  burly 
defenders  :  even  so  do  the  Mr.  Dexters  of  the  pulpit ;  they 
borrow  all  Mr.  Binney' s  old  hats,  and  then  boldly  chal- 
lenge the  world  to  touch  their  ministerial  reputation. 

I  have  said  that  some  men  require  a  good  deal  of 
grinding  and  polishing  before  they  can  be  safely  entrusted 
with  the  advice  to  he  tJiemselves.  Much,  however,  will 
depend  upon  the  way  in  which  the  business  is  gone 
about.     Let  me  at  once  advise  you  to  be  on  your  guard 


Naturalness.  31 

against  prof^SS^iT^  nf  ftjonntinn,  if  you  wish  to  be  natural, 
easy,  and  effective  as  a  public  speaker.  I  remember  tlie 
case  of  a  few  youths  who  were  very  ambitious  of  being- 
orators,  and  who  accordingly  availed  themselves  thank- 
fully of  an  offer  of  the  services  of  a  professor  who  un- 
dertook their  instruction  at  the  rate  of  five  shillings  per 
lesson.  Happily,  their  exercises  had  no  view  to  the 
pulpit.  They  felt  the  importance  of  being  able  to  speak 
readily  at  tea-meetings  and  other  exciting  assemblies  of 
their  fellow-townsmen,  and  consequently  went  into  the 
study  of  elocution  with  great  spirit.  Their  professor 
thought  himself  a  very  able  man ;  he  buttoned  his  coat 
in  military  fashion ;  and  while  his  head  always  looked  as 
if  he  had  just  hit  upon  a  new  and  daring  figure  of  speech, 
his  protruding  eyes  generally  seemed  to  be  fixed  defiantly 
upon  an  imaginary  opponent.  He  had  a  nice  smart  way, 
too,  of  waving  a  little  cane  which  he  always  carried,  a 
way  which  seemed  to  advertise  its  owner  as  no  common 
man,  though  at  that  particular  time  he  had  not  reached 
the  happy  and  convincing  climax  of  paying  twenty  shill- 
ings in  the  pound;  but  this,  said  the  waving  cane,  was 
more  his  misfortune  than  his  crime.  The  professor  was 
unquestionably  a  great  rhetorician  in  his  own  estimation; 
so  great  that  no  other  man  knew  what  he  himself  knew, 
viz.,  the  secret  of  opening  silent  lips  in  copious  and  elo- 
quent speech.  The  professor^s  system  was  strictly  secret ; 
^'  of  course  so,^^  said  he,  "  for,  gentlemen,  that  secret  is 
nothing  less  than  my  bread  !  "  and  down  came  the  cane 
by  way  of  emphasis. 

'^  Gentlemen,^^  the  professor  would  say,  ''  to-night  we 
assemble  as  rhetoricians ;  your  esteemed,  and  I  will  add, 
though  without  one  particle  of  flat^-^ry,  your  able  fellow- 


32         Ad  CleriLin :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

student,  Mr.  Binton,  lias  consented  at 'my  special  request 
to  embody  our  idea  of  a  few  emotions ;  gentlemen,  I 
propose  that  we  first  take  an  embodiment  of  the  emotion 
appropriate  to  admiration,  mingled,  if  you  please,  with 
somewhat  of  surprise  and  even  bewilderment  :  Mr. 
Binton,  be  kind  enough,  sir,  to  give  us  your  notion  of 
the  proper  gesture.''' 

Mr.  Binton,  who  had  had  ample  notice  that  he  would 
be  called  upon  to  act  this  part,  and  who  had  secretly 
gone  through  several  rehearsals  in  his  own  bedroom  in 
front  of  the  little  tenpenny  shaving  glass  which  was 
nailed  above  the  mantel-piece,  then  stepped  into  the 
middle  of  the  room  and  set  himself  in  a  well- studied 
posture. 

^'  Gentlemen,^'  the  conductor  continued,  ^^  what  criti- 
cism have  you  to  offer  ?  ^' 

'^  In  my  opinion,  sir,  the  head  is  not  sufiiciently  drawn 
back.'' 

'^  The  eyes  should  show  more  white,  sir,"  a  very  mild 
young  member  suggested. 

''  Gro  on,  gentlemen ;  your  criticisms  are  extremely  dis- 
criminating.'" 

'^  Sir,  I  think  Mr.  Binton's  left  hand  should  be  hori- 
zontal and  his  right  hand  perpendicular." 

"  Try  that,  Mr.  Binton,  and  let  us  see  if  the  effect  be 
pleasing,""  the  conductor  added. 

^'^But,  sir,"  a  practical  member  interposed,  ^^  don't  you 
think  Mr.  Binton  should  say  something  ?  I  mean  some- 
thing appropriate  to  the  attitude." 

"  Excellent  suggestion,  sir,"  the  conductor  replied ; 
'''  now  let  me  see  what  would  do  for  that  purpose ;  it 
must  be  something  brief,  abrupt,  and  striking;  come  now. 


Naturalness.  33 

let  me  see  ;  yes,  just  so,  nothing  better :  Mr.  Binton, 
be  kind  enough  to  exclaim,  '  Bless  my  soul,  the  creature 
is  beautiful!^  Your  tone  must  be  clear  and  startling, 
expressive  of  surprise  as  well  as  delight/' 

Mr.  Binton,  with  his  well-combed  head  drawn  back, 
his  eyes  nearly  rolled  away  somewhere  under  his  eye- 
brows, his  right  hand  perpendicular,  and  his  left  hand 

horizontal,  began,  "  '  Bless  my  soul ; '   I  forget  the 

rest,  sir,"  he  said  with  humiliation ;  and  when  the  sur- 
rounding rhetoricians  laughed,  Mr.  Binton  turned  round 
to  "  confound ''  them,  and  in  that  single  moment  he  be- 
came a  most  natural  and  effective  speaker. 

The  professor  frowned.  Who  had  any  right  to  laugh 
in  his  presence  ?  That  question  has  never  been  satis- 
factorily answered  to  this  day.  It  took  a  full  half-hour 
to  recover  the  needful  composure.  The  young  rheto- 
ricians, pledged  to  five  shillings  a  lesson,  bitterly  regretted 
their  untimely  laugh,  and  promised  amendment. 

''  Gentlemen,  our  second  lesson  will  supply  us  with  a 
contrast.  Mr.  Turner "  [apprenticed  to  a  boot-maker, 
and  who  had  his  head  examined  by  every  travelling 
phrenologist  who  came  in  his  way]  *'  has  kindly  con- 
sented to  assume  the  gesture  which  he  considers  appro- 
priate to  the  sensation  of  liorror,  and  to  accompany  that 
gesture  with  the  pathetic  exclamation,  ^  0  save  my 
drowning  father  ! ' " 

Mr.  Turner  felt  himself  to  be  nothing  short  of  a  born 
orator.  His  neighbours  indeed,  who  were  extremely 
plain  people,  without  the  slightest  regard  for  literature 
or  the  arts,  got  up  a  rumour  that  young  Jonas  Turner 
was  crazy;  and  when  called  upon  to  substantiate  that 
serious  charge,  they  referred  to  his  howling  in  his  bed- 


34         Ad  Cleriim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

room  and  to  tlie  strange  shadows  whicli  appeared  almost 
every  night  upon  the  white  calico  window-blind  of  that 
elevated  apartment.  They  said  he  sometimes  talked  as 
if  he  was  scolding  about  twenty  people  all  together^  and 
sometimes  he  shouted  as  if  he  was  calling  somebody  who 
was  a  mile  oflT,  and  that  he  was  always  most  outrageous 
the  night  before  there  was  a  tea-meeting  at  the  Young 
Men^s  club.  On  that  particular  night_,  they  said^  his 
voice  was  often  quite  threatening,  and  he  would  keep  up 
his  bawling  so  long  that  decent  people  quite  despaired  of 
getting  to  bed  before  morning.     Such  was  Jonas  Turner. 

Jonas  now  appeared  as  a  personification  of  horror.  He 
had  studied  the  part  carefully.  The  born  tragedian  ex- 
tended his  arms  in  a  clutching  manner_,  strained  his  eyes 
until  they  were  almost  lying  on  his  cheek,  opened  his 
mouth  to  its  utmost  stretch,  threw  himself  forward  into  a 
beseeching  attitude,  and  in  a  voice  whose  filial  pathos 
was  intended  to  be  heartrending,  exclaimed,  "  0  save 
my  drowning  father  !  '^  The  rhetoricians  looked  upon 
the  agonized  tragedian  with  amazement  mingled  with 
envy. 

"  How  will  this  do  ? ''  Jonas  himself  inquired  in  a  tone 
not  at  all  dissatisfied. 

'^  Grentlemen,^^  said  the  delighted  professor,  '^  don^t  pro- 
long the  torture  of  your  friend ;  criticise  at  once.''' 

"  Don't  you  think  the  left  leg  should  be  a  little  further 
drawn  back,  sir  ?  "" 

'^  The  word  '  father,'  sir,"  said  an  envious  critic, 
''  would  admit  of  a  little  more  pathos." 

'^  The  word  '  0/  sir,  should  be  more  piercingly  pro- 
nounced ;  Mr.  Turner  makes  it  too  round." 

''  Mr.  Turner's  hair,  sir,  should  look  a  little  more  wild 


Naturalness.  35 

and  scattered,  and  the  clutch  of  the  right  hand  should  be 
more  expressive  of  desperation.^' 

"I  think,  sir,  the  eyebrows  should  be  a  little  more 
elevated,  and  the  upper  lip  should  writhe  as  if  in  agony, 
and  a  sprinkling  of  foam  around  the  mouth  would  add  to 
the  effect  considerably/' 

^^  Try  the  exclamation  once  more,  sir,''  the  professor 
demanded  with  dignity. 

A  loud  shriek  was  then  uttered  by  Mr.  Jonas  Turner. 

^^  Come,  gentlemen,  there  is  vigour  and  no  mistake ; 
what  may  it  please  you  to  say  to  that  ?  " 

''  He  should  have  said  '  my  '  more  affectionately." 

'^  The  first  syllable  of  ^father '  should  have  been  much 
more  penetrating." 

''  There  was  not  soul  enough  in  the  word  *"  drowning' 
sir ;  it  strikes  me  that  '  drowning'  is  the  most  important 
word  in  the  sentence." 

^'  Say  you  all  so,  gentlemen  ? " 

"  No,  sir." 

"  How  say  you  then  ?  let  each  student  give  his  opinion 
fearlessly." 

The  young  men  then  contradicted  one  another  flatly, 
no  two  agreeing  which  was  the  most  important  word 
in  the  sentence.  Each  maintained  his  own  opinion 
stubbornly,  and  the  professor  looked  on  without  at- 
tempting to  decide  the  fierce  debate. 

Side  by  side  with  these  rhetorical  abominations  let  me 
place  the  following  letter  addressed  by  David  Gaerick  to 
a  young  preacher  : — 

"My  dear  Pupil, — 
"  You  know  how  you  would  feel  and  speak  in  the  parlour  to  a 
dear  friend  who  was  in  imminent  danger  of  his  life,  and  with  what 


36         Ad  Ghrum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

energetic  pathos  of  diction  and  countenance  you  would  enforce  the 
observance  of  that  which  you  really  thought  would  be  for  his  pre- 
servation. You  would  not  think  of  playing  the  orator,  of  studying 
your  emphasis,  cadence,  or  gesture.  You  would  be  yourself;  and 
the  interesting  nature  of  your  subject,  impressing  your  heart, 
would  furnish  you  with  the  most  natural  tone  of  voice,  the  most 
proper  language,  the  most  engaging  features,  and  the  most  suit- 
able and  graceful  gestures.  What  you  would  be  in  the  parlour,  be 
in  the  pulpit ;  and  you  will  not  fail  to  please,  to  affect,  to  profit. 

"  Adieu ." 

Yes,  that  is  rhetoric !  Be  earnest,  and  you  will  be 
eloquent ;  let  your  soul  speak,  and  your  words  will  be 
wise  and  good.  When  I  venture  to  put  you  on  your 
guard  against  professional  rhetoricians,  you  must  not 
understand  that  I  am  cautioning  you  against  friendly 
and  sensible  criticism;  we  cannot  see  ourselves  as  others 
see  us ;  hence  many  an  ungainly  action  or  offensive  habit 
may  be  modified,  if  not  quite  removed,  through  the  good 
offices  of  judicious  critics.  Court  the  judgment  of  your 
professors,  and  receive  their  hints  with  thankfulness ; 
they  are,  of  course,  deeply  interested  in  you,  and  if  they 
wound  your  vanity  their  wounds  are  inflicted  not  with 
ill-nature  but  with  faithfulness  and  even  generosity.  In- 
vite the  knife,  if  you  would  be  strong  and  useful ;  fret  at 
criticism,  if  you  wish  to  lose  a  lifetime  rather  than 
endure  temporary  mortification.  What  I  do  warn  you 
against  is  the  wichedness  of  talcing  any  studied  gestures 
into  the  jpuljpit.  I  denounce  this  as  iniquity  in  the  sight 
of  God,  as  the  consummation  of  heartlessness,  as  a  hypo- 
crisy as  transparent  as  it  is  audacious.  Abandon  all 
selfish  notions  of  popularity  when  you  stand  before  men 
as  the  messenger  of  God;  and  that  you  may  be  enabled  to 
do  this,  watch  and  pray,  and  fast  if  need  be,  and  God  will 


Naturalness.  37 

accept  your  sacrifice ;  look  upon  all  self- consciousness  in 
your  ministry  as  a  temptation  of  the  devil,  and  cry 
mightily  to  God  that  He  may  break  the  damning  snare : 
for  what  have  you  to  do  with  your  personality  and  with 
human  opinions  about  your  appearance  and  styles  when 
your  Lord  is  waiting  to  speak  His  living  word  through 
your  lips  ?  Know  you  not  that  you  preach  in  God's 
hearing  as  well  as  man's  ?  Will  you  cheat  your  hearers 
with  an  attitude,  when  you  should  give  them  a  gospel  ? 
Will  you  perplex  them  with  a  riddle,  when  you  should 
call  them  to  salvation  ?  Will  you  attract  their  eyes 
by  a  grimace,  when  you  should  fix  their  vision  upon  the 
uplifted  Saviour  ?  May  God  in  His  mercy  strike  us 
dumb  rather  than  allow  us  to  preach  ourselves;  but  rather 
may  He  fill  us  with  His  love  that  our  preaching  may  be 
all  of  Christ  I 


IV. 
DELIVERY. 

We  liave  discussed  tlie  first  two  divisions  named  in  th?. 
opening  of  the  second  letter,,  and  now  we  approach  the 
third.  When  I  advise  yon  to  be  as  unlike  a  book  as 
possible  in  the  method  of  your  delivery^  you  will  under- 
stand that  I  wish  to  dissuade  you  from  the  unnatural 
and  evil  practice  of  reading  your  sermons  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  your  ministry.  You  will  say  that  this  is  strong 
language ;  so  it  is,  but  it  is  the  language  of  strong  con- 
viction. Having  tried  both  methods,  the  method  of  free 
speech  and  the  method  of  reading,  I  can  give  an  opinion 
founded  upon  experience,  and  I  now  give  it  as  entirely 
favourable  to  free  speech./  The  pulpit  will  never  take 
its  proper  place  until  the  habit  of  reading  sermons  on 
ordinary  occasions  is  entirely  abandoned ;  it  is  official, 
pedantic,  and  heartless,  and  ought  to  be  put  down.  Let 
me  try  to  win  you  to  the  side  of  free  speech,  in  other 
words,  to  the  side  of  earnestness,  reality,  and  power,  y 

I  am  aware  that  one  or  two  objections  have  to  be 
encountered  at  the  outset,  yet  I  fancy  they  are  not  very 
formidable.  For  instance,  it  has  been  contended  that 
the  very  presence  of  a  manuscript  is  itself  an  evidence 
that  careful  preparation  has  been  made :  the  manuscript 
could  not  have  been  written  without  labour,  and  there- 


Delivery.  39 

fore  as  tlie  minister  spreads  it  boldly  out  before  tbe  eyes 
of  tlie  whole  congregation  lie  mutely  announces  bimsell 
as  a  painstaking  servant  of  tlie  cliurcli.  Be  it  so.  I 
wisb  this  fact  to  be  stated  with  all  due  effect^  because  I 
^vill  not  yield  to  any  man  in  hearty  appreciation  of  hard 
vv^ork.  You  will  altogether  misconceive  my  meaning  if 
YOU  infer  that  in  condemning  the  reading  of  sermons  I 
also  condemn  the  writing  of  them.  On  the  contrary^  I 
insist  upon  the  most  critical  and  zealous  preparation  for 
the  pulpit ;  I  would  have  the  minister  live  in  his  work, 
and  for  his  work,  and  toil  as  in  the  presence  of  Jesus 
Christ,  under  the  unquenchable  inspiration  of  Divine 
love,  and  in  the  happy  assurance  of  complete  success. 
A  terrible  malediction  awaits  the  indolent  minister ! 
Let  me  pray  you  then  to  acquit  me  of  the  suspicion  of 
self-indulgence  in  recommending  you  to  preach  the 
gospel  rather  than  to  read  it,  for  I  dare  not  incur  the 
responsibility  even  of  appearing  to  tempt  you  to  waste 
one  hour  of  the  life  which  is  too  short  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  all  its  holy  work.  If  you  will  follow  my  advice 
I  think  you  will  not  complain  of  having  nothing  to  do. 
Do  you  wish  to  know  the  method  of  preparation  which  I 
recommend,  in  view  of  free  delivery  in  the  pulpit  ?  You 
shall  have  it  in  full.  •  Take  as  your  text  a  paragraph 
from  the  apostolic  writings.  Read  it  carefully  in  the 
original  language;  trace  the  various  meanings  which 
may  be  attached  to  its  principal  words  in  other  parts  of 
the  New  Testament;  having  satisfied  yourself  as  to  the 
grammar  and  meaning  of  the  passage,  commit  your 
decision  to  writing,  and  then  take  the  opinion  of  two  or 
three  of  the  most  critical  expositors,  and  see  how  far 
your  judgment  accords  with  theirs;  having  thus  secured 


40         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  PreacJier. 

a  firm  standing-place  (whicli  is  often  quite  unattainable 
without  rigid  criticism)^  you  may  write  in  regular  order 
tlie  principal  thoughts  wliicli  the  passage   suggests   to 
your  mindj  and  this  memorandum  will  be  the  skeleton  of 
you*-  discourse;    now    proceed   to    elaboration^    writing 
upon  wide    lines  so  as  to   leave  room  for  erasure    and 
interlining;    having   completed   a   full  draft  of  all  your 
divisions,    begin   at   the   beginning,  and   strike    out  all 
the  long  words  and  all  the   superfine  expressions;    let 
them    go,  without    murmuring  !      Particularly  strike  out 
all    such  words  as   ^^methinks  I  see,"   ^^  cherubim    and 
seraphim,"  ''  the  glinting  stars,"  '^  the  stellar  heavens," 
"  the  circumambient   air,"  ^^  the   rustling  wings,"   "  the 
pearly  gates,"  "the  glistening  dew,"  *Hhe  meandering 
rills,"  and  '"''  the  crystal  battlements  of  heaven."     I  know 
how  pretty  they  look  to  the  young  eye,  and  how  sweetly 
they  sound  in  the  young  ear;   but  let  them  go  without  a 
sigh :  if  you  have  spoken  of  God  as  the  Deity,  put  your 
pen  through  the  word  ^'  Deity  "  and  write  "  God  "  in  its 
stead;  if  you  are  tempted  to  tell  your  hearers  that  Jonah 
spent  a  portion  of  his  life  under  the  cai'e  of  a  "  submarine 
custodian,"  don^t  hesitate  to  say  plainly  that  it  was  only 
a  whale ;  if  you  should  so  far  forget  yourself  as  to  write 
the  word    "pandemonium,"   put  it   out   and   write   the 
monosyllable    over   its    ruins ;    and    if  in   a  moment   o^ 
delirium  you  should  write  '^  my  beloved,  come  with  me 
on   the   pinions    of  imagination,^^    pause,    and   consider 
soberly  whether  you  had  not  on  the  whole  better  remain 
where  you  are. .   This  process  being  completed,  greatly 
to  the  disfigurement    of  your  manuscript,  re-write  the 
discourse  with  the  most  watchful  care,  determined  that 
everybody  who  hears  you  shall  not  be  left  in  doubt  of 


Belicery.  41 

jour  meaning ;  write  as  if  every  line  miglit  save  a  life ; 
and  when  you  liave  made  an  end  of  writing,  put  tlie 
manuscript  away,  and  go  to  your  public  work  with  the 
assurance  that  all  faithful  and  loving  service  is  accepted 
of  the  Father  and  will  be  crowned  with  His  effectual 
blessing.  Work  thus  diligently  at  the  beginning  of 
your  ministry,  say  for  the  first  five  or  seven  years,  and 
the  advantage  of  the  discipline  will  show  itself  down  to 
your  latest  effort  as  a  preacher.  You  will  see  then 
that  my  advice  to  speak  freely  in  the  pulpit  gives  you 
no  licence  to  go  up  with  an  empty  head  and  an  unbridled 
tongue ;  it  does  not  permit  you  to  trifle  with  your  oppor- 
tunities, or  to  give  your  hearers  a  stone  when  they  perish 
for  lack  of  bread ;  it  binds  you  to  the  severest  preparation, 
and  holds  you  guilty  before  God  if  you  keep  back  any 
''  part  of  the  price.''^  What  is  said  by  Henry  Eogers 
upon  prose  composition  generally  may  be  said  with 
equal  truth  respecting  the  composition  of  sermons  in 
^particular.  Let  me  lay  before  you  his  weighty  words : 
^'  Perhaps  it  may  not  be  superfluous  to  remind  the  young 
minister  that  if  he  would  attain  more  than  correctness, 
or  even  a  fluent  facility  ;  if  he  would  impress  upon  his 
compositions  that  individuality  without  which  they  can- 
not live,  he  must  ever  keep  in  mind  that  prose  may  be 
possessed  of  nearly  as  various  excellence  as  poetry,  and 
as  much  requires  sedulous  self-culture,  profound  medita- 
tion of  the  subject-matter,  familiar  acquaintance  with 
the  best  models  (models  sufficiently  numerous  to  prevent 
that  mannerism  which  results  from  unconscious  imita- 
tion if  there  be  too  familiar  converse  with  some  one), 
and  that  ^  limcB  labor,'  that  patient  revision,  which  is 
the   condition  of  all  excellence,  literary  or    otherwise." 


42         Ad  Gleriim :  Adolces  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

Believe  t]iis_,  and  your  sermons  will  never  fail  of  tlie 
simplicity^  condensation^  and  pungency  "witliout  wliicli 
they  will  do  little  good.  As  I  use  tlie  word  ^'  simplicity  " 
I  am  reminded  of  Lord  Jeffrey^s  happy  expression: 
''  Simplicity  is  the  last  attainment  of  progressive  litera- 
ture; and  men  are  very  long  afraid  of  being  natural,  from 
the  dread  of  being  taken  for  ordinary/^  You  will  for- 
give the  momentary  digression  for  the  sake  of  the  pro- 
found wisdom. 

You  will  probably  suggest  in  favour  of  sermons  that 
are  read  that  they  secure  for  the  preacher  great  accuracy, 
refinement,  and  variety  of  expression.  No  doubt  this 
may  be  so ;  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
consider  whether  such  advantages  may  not  cost  too  much, 
that  is  to  say  whether  they  are  not  often  secured  at  the 
expense  of  the  instruction  and  edification  of  many  hearers. 
Everything,  in  the  settlement  of  such  a  question,  depends 
upon  the  preacher's  position.  If  his  position  be  so  ex- 
ceptional as  to  give  him  the  advantage  of  addressing 
well-trained  men  who  can  follow  the  course  of  a  close 
argument  and  appreciate  the  niceties  of  refined  expres- 
sion, he  is  bound  to  be  faithful  to  the  claims  of  his 
position ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  as  will  be  found  to  be 
generally  the  case,  he  is  called  upon  to  minister  to  a 
miscellaneous  congregation,  of  which  probably  not  more 
than  one  person  in  ten  may  have  received  other  than  a 
common  school  education,  he  is  bound  as  the  servant  of 
Jesus  Christ,  who  pleased  not  Himself  but  endured  the 
deepest  humiliation,  not  to  consider  his  own  cultivated 
tastes  and  the  cultivated  tastes  of  half-a-dozen  of  his 
people,  but  to  study  carefully  what  is  best  adapted  to  the 
capacity,  the  habits,  and  the  wants  of  the  congregation 


Delivery.  43 

as  a  wliole.  Is  lie  tlie  servant  of  tlie  few  or  of  fhe  many  ? 
LuTHEE  said  of  himself  as  a  preacher  that  he  took  no 
notice  of  the  doctors  who  heard  him^  of  whom  there  were 
about  forty,  but  preached  to  the  young  men  and  servants, 
of  whom  there  were  about  two  thousand.  You  will  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  Luther  was  right.  He  was  right, 
too^  even  so  far  as  the  doctors  were  concerned,  because 
as  learned  men  they  did  not  need  mere  criticism  or 
brilliance  of  expression,  while  as  sinners  before  God  they 
did  continually  require  to  hear  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
For  whom  then  are  you  anxious  to  secure  all  the  tech- 
nical accuracy  and  finish  which  are  supposed  to  be  the 
excellences  of  read  discourses  ?  Your  congregation  will, 
to  a  large  extent,  be  composed  of  persons  who  have  all 
the  week  been  engaged  in  some  department  of  business, 
who  have  been  tried  by  many  disappointments,  perhaps 
too  tormented  by  many  temptations ;  you  will  have 
heads  of  houses  whose  lives  are  troubled  with  many 
anxieties,  you  will  have  youths  who  are  fast  becoming 
entangled  in  the  snares  which  beset  inexperienced  feet, 
and  little  children  whose  every  look  is  a  wonder  which 
should  be  lovingly  answered  :  such  will  be  your  congrega- 
tion ;  what  will  you  supply  in  the  way  of  teaching  ? 
You  may  ^Drepare  two  elaborate  essays  weekly,  which  are 
sublimely  indifferent  to  all  the  troubles  and  burdens  of 
common  life;  you  may  play  the  philosophic  theologian 
twice  a-week  in  the  presence  of  men  who  have  no  heart 
to  follow  you  in  your  mocking  speculations ;  you  may 
display  your  scholastic  trinkets  upon  your  pulpit-board, 
to  the  amazement  of  the  vulgar  and  the  disgust  of  the 
thoughtful ;  you  may  write  the  most  faultless  sentences 
and  elaborate  the  most  skilful  paragraphs,  and  you  may 


44         Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

become  absorbed  in  tlie  idolatry  of  your  own  genius : 
butj  my  dear  sir,  in  doing  all  this  are  you  tlie  servant  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,  whom  the  common  people  heard 
gladly,  and  who  made  Himself  of  no  reputation  ?  Are  you 
a  preacher  of  the  Cross  ?  Are  you  inspired  by  an  ardent 
desire  for  the  salvation  of  men  ?  I  think  I  know  your 
answer.  You  will  say  that  in  writing  your  sermons  you 
will  write  simply  and  earnestly,  under  the  impulse  of 
Christian  love,  and  with  a  single  eye  to  the  great  object 
of  the  gospel  ministry ;  you  will  write  practically ;  you 
will  instruct,  exhort,  appeal,  with  all  prayerful  earnest- 
ness, and  your  composition  shall  be  more  marked  by  your 
Christianity  than  your  scholarship.  I  rejoice  in  such  a 
resolution,  yet  I  adhere  to  my  advice — be  a  Preacher  not 
a  Reader  of  the  gospel  !  Remember  the  pungent  but 
truthful  words  of  Sydney  Smith  :  ^'  Pulpit  discourses 
have  insensibly  dwindled  from  speaking  to  reading;  a 
practice  of  itself  sufficient  to  stifle  every  germ  of  elo- 
quence. It  is  only  by  the  fresh  feelings  of  the  heart  that 
mankind  can  be  very  powerfully  affected.  What  can  be 
more  ludicrous  than  an  orator  delivering  stale  indigna- 
tion, and  fervour  of  a  week  old ;  turning  over  whole 
pages  of  violent  passions,  written  out  in  German  text ; 
reading  the  tropes  and  apostrophes  into  which  he  is 
hurried  by  the  ardour  of  his  mind ;  and  so  affected  at  a 
preconcerted  line  and  page  that  he  is  unable  to  proceed 
any  further  !  '^  It  is  but  poor  eloquence  that  comes  of 
such  a  process,  and  its  very  vehemence  only  confirms 
one^s  suspicion  of  its  artificialism.  Why  not  address 
your  people  in  a  free,  natural,  and  hearty  manner  ? 
Why  preach  at  them,  when  it  is  your  business  to  preach 
to  them  ?     From  these  questions  you  will  rightly  infer 


Deliverij.  45 

tliat  in  my  opimon  your  sermon  skould  always  be  ^9ar^  oj 
yourself;  instead  of  saying  "  I  have  my  sermon/'  you 
should  say  "  I  am  my  sermon/'  and  tlien  you  will  speak 
livingly  and  fearlessly.  I  am  acquainted  with  a  minister 
who  reads  the  most  eloquent  papers  (sermons  he  would 
incorrectly  term  them)  to  his  people ;  they  are  elaborate, 
rhetorical,,  sensational^  liigWy  polished  in  expression^  and 
always  ready  for  the  press  :  in  reading  those  papers  my 
friend  works  himself  into  the  intensest  excitement,  he 
swings  his  right  arm  in  a  threatening  manner,  and  jerks 
his  left  hand  as  if  it  were  always  in  an  inconvenient  place ; 
occasionally  he  stamps  his  foot,  and  throughout  his  effort 
there  are  many  signs  of  excitement.  I  have  looked  at 
him  with  wonder,  but  my  admiration  has  always  suffered 
considerably  as  I  have  thought  that  if  the  manuscript 
could  be  removed  he  would  not  be  able  to  keep  the  atten- 
tion of  his  hearers  for  five  minutes.  I  object  to  being 
read  at  when  I  go  to  hear  the  gospel.  Why,  I  ask  again, 
don't  ministers  speak  to  their  people,  as  if  the  sermon 
came  from  the  heart  and  was  meant  to  do  them  good  ? 
I  am  aware  that  my  friend's  sermons  are  not  unfrequently 
spoken  of  as  "  very  finished,"  *^  wonderfully  thought  out," 
'''very  elaborate/' and  "highly  eloquent ;"  but  I  never 
hear  a  sentence  quoted,  nor  am  I  aware  that  the  hearers 
are  ever  compelled  to  forget  the  speaker  in  his  subject. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  can  point  you  to  a  man  who  never 
takes  a  note  into  the  pulpit,  whose  sermons  are  never 
praised  as  elaborate  or  finished,  yet  whose  words  are 
quoted  all  the  week  long,  and  whose  prayers  linger  in 
the  memory  as  blessings  and  helps  to  the  whole  life. 
Truly,  this  man's  sermons  are  not  prepared  for  the  press; 
they  are  prepared  for  the  understanding  and  the  heart 


46         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

alone ;  and  long  after  the  voice  of  the  artificial  rhetorician 
has  been  forgotten^  the  sharp,,  clear^  penetrating  words 
of  the  natui^al  orator  will  abide  in  grateful  recollection. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  remind  you^  in  this  connec- 
tion^  that  God  has  been  pleased  to  bless  in  an  extra- 
ordinary degree  a  kind  of  preaching  which,  in  point  of 
technical  value,  has  been  almost  contemptible.  Look  at 
Whitefield^s  sermons, — where  is  the  logic,  the  profound 

•  doctrine,  the  accurate  criticism,  the  instructive  exposi- 
tion, which  are  so  justly  esteemed  by  thoughtful  Christ- 
ians ?  Yet  those  sermons,  without  any  pretence  to 
learning  or  ingenuity,  stormed  the  nation.  Mr.  Spue- 
GEON  has  never  been  regarded  as  what  is  generally  under- 
stood as  a  ^^  finished"  preacher;  he  is  no  pulpit  essayist; 
he  is  not  a  cunning  contriver  of  pretty  sentences ;  yet  he 
has  done  a  work  in  the  Christian  pulpit  which  can  never 
be  forgotten.  The  principle  so  strikingly  illustrated  in 
these  marked  examples  has  been  almost  as  fully  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  the  great  Methodist  preachers,  as 

^also  in  the  case  of  the  popular  ministers  of  Wales.  ) 
Whitefield  and  Spurgeon  cannot  be  ranked  with  educated 
men;  neither  of  them  can  be  said  to  have  had  any 
proper  theological  training;  yet  both  of  them  are  names 
which  can  never  perish  from  the  most  conspicuous  page 
of  the  history  of  the  British  pulpit.  It  seems  as  if  God 
had  always  used  things  that  are  base  and  weak,  and 
things  that  are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  that  are, 
and  that  in  all  high  and  Divine  concerns  He  had  deter- 
mined that  the  stone  which  the  builders  rejected  should 
become  the  head  stone  of  the  corner.  Many  ministers 
will  tell  you  that  sermons  on  whose  composition  they 
have   expended    their   strength   have   hardly  ever  been 


Delivery.  47 

referred  to  as  tlie  means  of  awakening  or  edifying  tlieir 
hearer Sj  whilst  sermons  in  whose  structure  and  elabora- 
tion there  was  neither  genius  nor  eloquence  have  brought 
many  to  thoughtfulness  and  decision.  Undoubtedly  this 
fact  may  be  abused  by  the  self-indulgent  hireling,  but 
let  not  that  man  think  that  he  shall  receive  anything  of 
the  Lord_, — he  shall  be  as  a  withered  branch_,  not  as  a 
green  and  fruit.  .1  tree.  I  once  asked  Me.  Binney  what 
he  thought  was  the  best  method  of  preaching,  and  he 
replied,  "  to  gather  your  materials,  and  set  fire  to  them 
in  the  pulpit.^^  Think  of  this  :  the  words  are  full  of 
meaning;  to  ^^  gather  your  materials  ^^  means  to  work 
hard,  to  turn  all  things  into  mental  and  spiritual  richer, 
and  to  be  thoroughly  furnished ;  to  ''  set  fire  to  them  m 
the  pulpit  ^'  means  to  have  that  elevation  and  holy 
enthusiasm  of  Christian  love  which  cannot  be  depressed 
by  fear  of  man  nor  be  made  indifferent  to  the  claims  of 
truth.  In  a  word  then,  no  essays  in  the  pulpit  !  I 
know  what  can  be  said  about  accuracy,  polish,  variety, 
culture,  and  so  forth ;  yet  in  full  view  of  it  all  I  repeat,  nO 
essays  in  the  pulpit — no  pathos,  scientifically  punctuated 
and  paragraphed — no  entreaty  exquisitely  polished — no 
theatrical  pedantry  under  the  guise  of  Christian  ear- 
nestness. 

At  the  risk  of  what  may  look  like  an  unjust  suspicion  of 
your  memory,  I  must  remind  you  of  my  abhorrence  of 
unprepared  sermons.  The  question  before  us  is  not 
whether  sermons  shall  be  ]jreiDared,  but  how  they  shall 
be  delivered  after  they  have  been  prepared.  I  have 
ventured  to  set  you  some  hard  work  in  the  preparation, 
and  now  I  may  seem  to  call  you  to  equally  hard  work  in 
the  delivery  of  your  discourses.     Be  it   so  :  hard  work 


48         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier, 

is  good  for  us  all ;  in  all  labour  there  is  profit,  specially 
in  the  labour  which  is  spent  for  God.  As  your  pastoral 
work  increases,  and  the  claims  upon  your  public  service 
become  more  urgent,  you  will  not  find  time  for  the 
toilsome  preparation  which  has  been  recommended  for 
your  early  years ;  you  will  then  require  some  readier 
method  of  arranging  your  material  for  the  pulpit,  and  in 
view  of  this  necessity  it  may  help  you  to  decision  if  you 
are  made  acquainted  with  the  practice  of  two  or  three 
eminent  speakers. 

In  his  review  of  Currants  biography,  Lord  Jeffrey 
says:  ''^  He  is  here  said  to  have  spoken  extempore  at 
his  first  coming  to  the  Bar ;  but  when  his  rising  repu- 
tation made  him  more  chary  of  his  fame,  he  tried  for 
some  time  to  write  down,  and  commit  to  memory,  the 
more  important  parts  of  his  pleadings.  The  result  how- 
ever was  not  at  all  encouraging ;  and  he  soon  laid  aside 
his  pen  so  entirely  as  scarcely  even  to  make  any  notes 
in  preparation.  He  meditated  his  subjects  however, 
when  strolling  in  his  garden,  or  more  frequently  while 
idling  over  his  violin,  and  often  prepared  in  this  way 
those  splendid  passages  and  groups  of  images  with 
which  he  was  afterwards  to  dazzle  and  enchant  his 
admirers.  The  only  notes  he  made  were  often  of  the 
metaphors  he  proposed  to  employ,  and  these  of  the 
utmost  brevity.  For  the  grand  peroration,  for  example, 
in  H.  Rowan^s  case,  his  notes  were  as  follows  : — '  Charac- 
ter of  Mr.  R.  :  Furnace — Rebellion — Smothered — Stalks 
— Redeeming  Spirit.^  From  such  slight  hints  he  spoke 
fearlessly,  and  without  cause  for  fear.  With  the  help 
of  such  a  scanty  chart,  he  plunged  boldl}^  into  the  un- 
buoyed  channel  of  his  cause,  and  trusted  himself  to  the 


Delivery.  49 

torrent  of  his  own  eloquence  with,  no  better  guidance 
than  such  landmarks  as  these.  It  almost  invariably 
happened  however  that  the  experiment  succeeded  ;  '  that 
his  own  expectations  were  far  exceeded ;  and  that_,  when 
his  mind  came  to  be  more  intensely  heated  by  his  sub- 
ject, and  by  that  inspiring  confidence  which  a  public 
audience  seldom  fails  to  infuse  into  all  who  are  suffi- 
ciently gifted  to  receive  it,  a  multitude  of  new  ideas, 
adding  vigour  or  ornament,  were  given  off;  and  it  also 
happened  that  in  the  same  prolific  moments,  and  as 
their  almost  inevitable  consequence,  some  crude  and 
fantastic  notions  escaped,  which,  if  they  impeach  the 
author^ s  taste,  at  least  leave  him  the  merit  of  a  splendid 
fault  which  none  but  men  of  genius  can  commit/  " 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  three  points  arising  out 
of  this  statement.  First  of  all,  cultivate  to  the  fullest 
extent  the  great  gift  of  mental  composition.  In  my  esti- 
mation the  value  of  this  gift  cannot  be  over-stated.  It 
not  only  saves  the  drudgery  but  the  time  demanded  by 
writing,  and  it  sets  the  speaker  at  liberty  to  take  the 
exercise  which  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of  health. 
One  of  the  most  distinguished  preachers,  whose  name  is 
universally  honoured,  told  me  that  he  could  compose  a  ft^i 
sermon  from  beginning  to  end  without  ever  writing  a 
word !  Why  some  of  us,  poor  slaves,  cannot  compose  a 
dozen  sentences  unless  we  are  shut  up  in  the  silent  study 
and  have  the  best  writing  materials  at  command.  In 
confidence  I  may  tell  you  that  of  all  such  slaves  I  may 
almost  claim  to  be  chief.  Many  a  time  I  have  gone  into 
the  quiet  lanes  with  a  steady  determination  to  compose  a 
sermon ;  but  before  I  have  got  far  enough  to  require  a 
semicolon,  my  truant  mind  has  taken  up  with  some  more 


50         Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

tempting  thougli  less  profitable  subject.  Then  would 
come  shame,  and  then  renewed  courage ;  another  sen- 
tence would  be  boldly  begun,  but  alas  the  very  next 
horse  that  passed  me  would  carry  away  my  thoughts 
with  it,  and  I  would  be  left  in  deeper  humiliation.  Take 
warning  from  this  example,  and  if  you  have  any  such 
gift  as  Curran  had,  do  allow  me  to  urge  you  to  cultivate 
it  with  the  most  painstaking  diligence.  Its  exercise 
will  almost  double  your  life,  and  will  certainly  impart  to 
your  speech  a  freshness  and  strength  which  are  unattain- 
able, except  in  very  rare  cases,  by  the  monastic  penman. 
— The  second  point  arising  out  of  the  statement  is  the 
awkward  difiiculty  which  is  often  occasioned  by  the 
brevity  of  one^s  memoranda.  In  Rowan^s  case  Curran 
jotted  down  the  word '^  Fitrnace,"  hnt  imagine  his  em- 
barrassment if  on  coming  to  that  word  he  could  not  have 
recalled  the  train  of  thought  which  it  was  intended  to 
suggest !  Many  a  time,  on  looking  over  the  notes  which 
have  been  prepared  for  the  pulpit,  I  have  asked,  ^^  What- 
ever did  I  mean  when  I  wrote  that  V^  and  therefore,  in 
recollection  of  my  own  embarrassment,  let  me  advise  you 
to  be  explicit  in  your  notes,  so  that  your  invention  may 
not  be  hampered  by  a  faithless  memory. — The  third 
point  is  the  possibility  of  violating  good  taste  in  the 
rapidity  of  extemporaneous  speech.  You  cannot  be 
sure  that  the  right  word  will  infallibly  come  at  the 
right  moment.  The  speaker  has  fully  committed  him- 
self to  his  work ;  he  cannot  hesitate  or  pause  to  correct 
himself,  he  must  go  on ;  and  under  this  tyrannous  ne- 
cessity he  may  again  and  again  ofiFend  good  taste,  a 
fact  of  which  he  is  even  more  painfully  aware  than  his 
most  fastidious  hearer   can  be.     It  is   then  a  question 


Delivery,  51 

of  comparison  of  advantages ;  a  written  speecli  may  of 
course  be  always  correct,  whereas  an  extemporaneous 
(tliougli  well-considered)  oration  may  be  marred  by 
basty  and  ill-regulated  expressions ;  on  tbe  wbole  bow- 
ever,  baving  regard  to  tbe  great  object  of  preacbing, 
free  speecb  in  tbe  pulpit  is  in  my  opinion  infinitely  pre- 
ferable to  tbe  most  finished  written  composition. 

Whitefield,  if  be  can  be  said  to  bave  bad  any  method 
of  preparation  at  all,  adopted  a  course  which  it  would  be 
unsafe  to  recommend  indiscriminately.  On  this  point 
CoENELius  Winter  has  given  us  tbe  benefit  of  bis  per- 
sonal recollections :  ^'  The  time  Mr.  Whitefield  set  apart 
for  preparations  for  the  pulpit,  during  my  connection 
with  him,  was  not  to  be  distinguished  from  the  time  be 
appropriated  to  other  business.  If  he  wanted  to  write  a 
pamphlet  upon  any  occasion,  he  was  closeted;  nor  would 
be  allow  access  to  him  but  on  an  emergency,  while  be 
was  engaged  in  the  work.  But  I  never  knew  him  en- 
gaged in  the  composition  of  a  sermon  until  he  was  on 
board  ship,  when  he  employed  himself  partly  in  the  com- 
position of  sermons,  and  reading  very  attentively  the 
history  of  England  written  by  different  authors.  He  bad 
formed  a  design  of  writing  the  history  of  Methodism, 
but  never  entered  upon  it.  He  was  never  more  in  re- 
tirement on  a  Saturday  than  on  another  day,  nor  seques- 
tered at  any  particular  time  for  a  period  longer  than  be 
used  for  his  ordinary  devotions.  I  never  met  with  any- 
thing like  the  form  of  a  skeleton  of  a  sermon  among  bis 
papers,  with  which  I  was  permitted  to  be  very  familiar ; 
nor  did  he  ever  give  me  any  idea  of  the  importance  of 
being  habituated  to  the  planning  of  a  sermon.  It  is  not 
injustice  to  his  great  character  to  say  I  believe  be  knew 

E  2 


52         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Freacher. 

notliing  about  such  a  kind  of  exercise.  Usually  for  an 
hour  or  two  before  lie  entered  tlie  pulpit  he  claimed 
retirement ;  and  on  a  sabbath  morning  more  particularly 
he  was  accustomed  to  have  darkens  Bible,  Matthew 
Henry's  Comment,  and  Cruden's  Concordance  within  his 
reach  :  his  frame  at  that  time  was  more  than  ordinarily 
devotional.  I  say  more  than  ordinarily,  because,  though 
there  was  a  vast  vein  of  pleasantry  usually  in  him,  the 
intervals  of  conversation  evidently  appeared  to  be  filled 
up  with  private  ejaculation  connected  with  praise.  His 
rest  was  much  interrupted,  and  his  thoughts  were  much 
engaged  with  God  in  the  night.  He  has  often  said  at  the 
close  of  his  very  warm  address,  ^ This  sermon  I  got  when 
most  of  you  who  now  hear  me  were  fast  asleep.''  He 
made  very  minute  observations,  and  was  much  disposed 
to  be  conversant  with  life,  from  the  lowest  mechanic  to 
the  first  characters  in  the  land.  He  let  nothing  escape 
him,  but  turned  all  into  gold  that  admitted  of  improve- 
ment; and,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  occurrence  of  the 
week  or  the  day  furnished  him  with  matter  for  the 
pulpit.^' 

Can  you  wonder,  other  things  being  equal,  that  such  a 
man  was  the  most  attractive  preacher  of  his  day  ?  Could 
any  one  have  stolen  George  Whitefield's  sermon  ?  Can 
you  imagine  him  looking  round  on  Sunday  morning  for 
his  black  book,  and  showing  a  little  nervousness  because 
he  could  not  lay  his  hand  upon  it  in  a  moment  ?  Can 
you  fancy  him  fretful  because  the  fogginess  of  the  morn- 
ing would  probably  interfere  with  his  comfort  in  reading 
his  manuscript  ?  Why,  George  Whitefield  lijas  the 
sermon  :  it  was  m  him  as  part  of  his  very  life ;  and  his 
word  was  therefore  with  living  power.     If  you  ask  me 


Delivery,  53 

■what  I  mean  by  being  as  unlike  a  book  as  possible,  I 
answer,  look  at  George  Whitefield,  tbe  natural,  devout, 
fervid,  and  impressive  preacber.  I  cannot  find  what  may 
be  termed  a  bookish  sentence  in  any  of  his  sermons; 
everywhere  there  is  the  vivacity,  the  point,  the  abruptness 
of  free  and  earnest  speech.  Take  the  peroration  of  his 
sermon  upon  "  The  Kingdom  of  God,^^  and  say  whether 
you  can  imagine  such  an  appeal  to  have  been  written  as 
books  are  written  :  mark  the  simplicity,  the  directness, 
the  stormy  yet  tender  vehemence  of  the  exhortation  : — 

^'  My  dear  friends,  I  would  preach  with  all  my  heart 
till  midnight,  to  do  you  good,  till  I  could  preach  no  more. 
Oh  that  this  body  might  hold  out  to  speak  more  for  my 
dear  Redeemer  !  Had  I  a  thousand  lives,  had  I  a  thou- 
sand tongues,  they  should  be  employed  in  inviting  sinners 
to  come  to  Jesus  Christ  !  Come  then,  let  me  prevail 
with  some  of  you  to  come  along  with  me.  Come,  poor, 
lost,  undone  sinner;  come  just  as  you  are  to  Christ,  and 
say.  If  I  be  damned  I  will  perish  at  the  feet  of  Jesus 
Christ,  where  never  one  perished  yet.  He  will  receive 
you  with  open  arms ;  the  dear  Redeemer  is  willing  to  re- 
ceive you  all.  Fly  then  for  your  lives.  The  devil  is  in 
you  while  unconverted ;  and  will  you  go  with  the  devil 
in  your  heart  to  bed  this  night  ?  God  Almighty  knows 
if  ever  you  and  I  shall  see  one  another  again.  In  one  or 
two  days  more  I  must  go,  and  perhaps  I  may  never  see 
you  again  till  I  meet  you  at  the  judgment-day.  0  my 
dear  friends,  think  of  that  solemn  meeting ;  think  of  that 
important  hour,  when  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a 
great  noise,  when  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent 
heat,  when  the  sea  and  the  grave  shall  be  giving  up  their 
dead,  and  all  shall  be  summoned  to  appear  before  the 


54         Ad  Glenim  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

great  God.  What  will  you  do  then,  if  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  erected  in  your  hearts  ?  You  must  go  to  the 
devil — like  must  go  to  like — if  you  are  not  converted ; 
Christ  hath  asserted  it  in  the  strongest  manner  :  ^  Yerily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except  a  man  be  born  again  he 
cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God/  Who  can  dwell 
with  devouring  fire  ?  Who  can  dwell  with  everlasting 
burnings  ?  Oh,  my  heart  is  melting  with  love  to  you. 
Surely  God  intends  to  do  good  to  your  poor  souls.  Will 
no  one  be  persuaded  to  accept  of  Christ  ?  If  those  who 
are  settled  Pharisees  will  not  come,  I  desire  to  speak  to 
you  who  are  drunkards,  sabbath-breakers,  cursers  and 
swearers — will  you  come  to  Christ  ?  I  know  that  many 
of  you  come  here  out  of  curiosity  :  though  you  come  only 
to  see  the  congregation,  yet  if  you  come  to  Jesus  Christ 
Christ  will  accept  of  you.  Are  there  any  cursing,  swear- 
ing soldiers  here  ?  Will  you  come  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
list  yourself  under  the  banner  of  the  dear  Redeemer  ? 
You  are  all  welcome  to  Christ.  Are  there  any  little  boys 
or  little  girls  here  ?  Come  to  Christ,  and  He  will  erect 
His  kingdom  in  you.  There  are  many  little  children 
whom  God  is  working  on,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Oh, 
if  some  of  the  little  lambs  would  come  to  Christ  they 
shall  have  peace  and  joy  in  the  day  that  the  Redeemer 
shall  set  up  His  kingdom  in  their  hearts.  Parents,  tell 
them  that  Jesus  Christ  will  take  them  in  His  arms,  that 
He  will  dandle  them  on  His  knees.  All  of  you,  old  and 
young,  you  that  are  old  and  grey-headed,  come  to  Jesus 
Christ,  and  you  shall  be  kings  and  priests  to  your  God. 
The  Lord  will  abundantly  pardon  you  at  the  eleventh 
hour.  ^Ho,  every  one  of  you  that  thirsteth.''  If  there  be 
any  of  you  ambitious  of  honour,  do  you  want  a  crown. 


Deliver  ij.  55 

a  sceptre  ?  Come  to  Christ,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
will  give  you  a  kingdom  that  no  man  shall  take  from 
you/' 

This  is  not  what  you  would  call  a  finished  literary 
style,  it  is  too  exclamatory  and  hortative  to  be  expressed 
fully  in  type  ;  but  let  the  words  be  spoken  with  melodious 
power  of  voice  and  accompanied  by  all  the  signs  of 
earnestness  which  characterized  George  Whitefield^s 
ministry,  and  one  can  conceive  the  effect  which  they 
would  produce  upon  a  mixed  congregation.  The  people 
would  feel  that  the  minister  was  intent  upon  their  salva- 
tion, and  that  everything  was  made  subordinate  to  that 
end.  There  is  a  marked  personality  in  the  appeal ;  the 
preacher  seems  resolved  to  address  his  hearers  actually 
by  name,  lest  any  man  should  imagine  himself  excluded 
from  the  happy  invitations  of  the  gospel.  '*"  He  had,^^ 
says  Cornelius  Winter,  "  a  most  peculiar  art  of  speaking 
personally  to  you,  in  a  congregation  of  four  thousand 
people,  when  no  one  would  suspect  his  object,^"* — a  won- 
derful power,  yet  one  that  should  be  constantly  under 
the  control  of  the  severest  prudence. 

A  very  different  man  was  Feederick  William  Robert- 
son, yet  he  furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of  what  is 
meant  by  being  as  unlike  a  book  as  possible.  ^^  So  en- 
tirely was  his  heart  in  his  words,  that,  in  public  speaking 
especially,  he  lost  sight  of  everything  but  his  subject. 
His  self-consciousness  vanished.  He  did  not  choose  his  A 
words,  or  think  about  his  thoughts.  He  not  only 
possessed,  but  was  possessed  by,  his  idea ;  and  when  all 
was  over,  and  the  reaction  came,  he  had  forgotten, 
like  a  dream,  words,  illustrations,  almost  everything.  . 
.     .     He  spoke  under  tremendous  excitement,  but  it  was 


56         Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

excitement  reined  in  by  will.  He  held  in  his  hand,  when 
he  began  his  sermon,  a  small  slip  of  paper,  with  a  few 
notes  upon  it.  He  referred  to  it  now  and  then ;  but  before 
ten  minutes  had  gone  by  it  was  crushed  to  uselessness 
in  his  grasp  ;  for  he  knit  his  fingers  together  over  it,  as 
he  knit  his  words  over  his  thought.-'^  Why?  Because 
he  was  intensely  in  earnest.  I  cannot  see  how  a  man  who 
is  thoroughly  in  earnest  can  content  himself  with  reading 
a  paper  to  his  congregation.  The  man  may  unquestion- 
ably be  pious,  sincere,  wishful  to  do  good,  and  very 
industrious  in  all  his  ministerial  habits ;  but  how  he  can 
be  bound  down  by  his  paper,  and  stand  from  year  to 
year  reading  his  literary  productions,  instead  of  crying 
out  with  irrepressible  emotion  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  at  hand,  it  is  beyond  my  power  to  explain.  '^As 
every  sound  is  not  music,  so  every  sermon  is  not 
preaching,  but  worse  than  if  he  should  read  a  homily. 
.  .  What  a  shame  is  this,  that  the  preachers 
should  make  preaching  be  despised !  In  Jeremiah 
xlviii.  there  is  a  curse  upon  them  which  do  the  business 
of  the  Lord  negligently  ;  if  this  curse  do  not  touch 
them  which  do  the  chiefest  business  of  the  Lord 
negligently  it  cannot  take  hold  of  any  other.  There- 
fore let  every  preacher  first  see  how  his  notes  do 
move  himself,  and  then  he  shall  have  comfort  to  deliver 
them  to  others  like  an  experienced  medicine  which  himself 
hath  proved."  These  are  the  words  of  the  *"*■  silver- 
tongued^^  Puritan,  Henet  Smith.  You  will  pro- 
bably express  a  fear  that  you  will  break  down  if  you 
attempt  to  speak  in  the  way  which  has  been  recom- 
mended. Your  fear  does  not  deter  me  from  repeating 
the  advice.     Break  down  in  the  right  way,  rather  than 


Delivery.  57 

succeed  in  tlie  wrong  one  I  Show  yourself  so  deeply  in 
earnest  for  the  salvation  of  your  hearers  as  to  deliver 
yourself  from  the  snare  of  so  unworthy  an  apprehension ; 
and  if  you  should  break  down,  pray  God  the  Helper  of 
the  weak  to  make  your  failure  a  means  of  magnifying  His 
own  grace ;  when  we  are  weak  then  are  we  strong ;  there 
is  a  breaking  down  which  is  mortifying  to  our  personal 
vanity,  there  is  another  breaking  down  which  brings  us 
closely  and  tenderly  to  God  in  humble  and  perfect  trust. 
Are  you  not  a  servant  of  God  ?  May  you  not  draw  from 
the  fulness  of  His  love  ?  Will  He  not  honour  your  secret 
labour  with  public  success  ?  Cease  to  think  of  yourself 
other  than  as  the  messenger  of  God,  the  ambassador  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  you  shall  speak,  probably  with  many 
technical  imperfections,  but  with  a  simplicity  and  power 
which  must  do  good  to  your  hearers.  The  words  of  a 
celebrated  writer  are  so  appropriate  to  this  point  that  I 
am  sure  you  will  excuse  the  length  of  the  quotation  for 
the  sake  of  the  nobility  and  pertinence  of  the  sentiment:  — 
There  are  two  ways  of  regarding  a  sermon,  either  as 
a  human  composition,  or  a  Divine  message.  If  we  look 
upon  it  entirely  as  the  first,  and  require  our  clergymen 
to  finish  it  with  their  utmost  care  and  learning,  for  our 
better  delight,  whether  of  ear  or  intellect,  we  shall 
necessarily  be  led  to  expect  much  formality  and  stateli- 
ness  in  its  delivery,  and  to  think  that  all  is  not  well  if 
the  pulpit  have  not  a  golden  fringe  round  it  and  a 
goodly  cushion  in  front  of  it,  and  if  the  sermon  be  not 
fairly  written  in  a  black  book,  to  be  smoothed  upon  the 
cushion  in  a  majestic  manner  before  beginning  :  all  this  we 
shall  duly  come  to  expect ;  but  we  shall  at  the  same  time 
consider  the  treatise  thus  prepared  as  something  to  which 


58         Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

it  is  our  duty  to  listen  without  restlessness  for  half  an  hour 
or  three  quarters,  but  which,  when  that  duty  has  been 
decorously  performed,  we  may  dismiss  from  our  minds  in 
happy  confidence  of  being  provided  with  another  when  it 
shall  be  necessary.  But  if  once  we  begin  to  regard  the 
preacher,  whatever  his  faults,  as  a  man  sent  with  a 
message  to  us,  which  it  is  a  matter  of  life  or  death 
whether  we  hear  or  refuse ;  if  we  look  upon  him  as  set  in 
charge  over  many  souls  in  danger  of  ruin,  and  having 
allowed  to  him  but  an  hour  or  two  in  the  seven  days  to 
speak  to  them  ;  if  we  make  some  endeavour  to  conceive 
how  precious  these  hours  ought  to  be  to  him,  a  small 
vantage  on  the  side  of  God  after  his  flock  have  been 
exposed  for  six  days  together  to  the  full  weight  of  the 
world^s  temptation,  and  he  has  been  forced  to  watch  the 
thorn  and  the  thistle  springing  up  in  their  hearts,  and  to 
see  what  wheat  has  been  scattered  there  snatched  from 
the  wayside  by  this  wild  bird  and  the  other ;  and  at  last, 
— when  breathless  and  weary  with  the  week^s  labour,  they 
give  him  this  interval  of  imperfect  and  languid  hearing — 
he  has  but  thirty  minutes  to  get  at  the  separate  hearts  of 
a  thousand  men,  to  convince  them  of  all  their  weaknesses, 
to  shame  them  for  all  their  sins,  to  warn  them  of  all  their 
dangers,  to  try  by  this  way  and  that  to  stir  the  hard 
fastenings  of  those  doors  where  the  Master  himself  has 
stood  and  knocked  yet  none  opened,  and  to  call  at  the 
entrance  of  those  dark  streets  where  wisdom  herself  has 
stretched  forth  her  hands  and  no  man  regarded ;  thirty 
minutes  to  raise  the  dead  in — let  us  but  once  understand 
and  feel  this,  and  we  shall  look  with  changed  eyes  upon 
that  frippery  of  gay  furniture  about  the  place  from  which 
the    message    of  judgment    must   be    delivered,    which 


Deliver}/,     ,  59 

* 
eitlier  breathes  upon  tlie  dry  bones  tliat  tbey  may  live, 

or,  if  ineffectual,  remains  recorded  in  condemnation, 
perhaps  against  the  utterer  and  listener  alike,  but 
assuredly  against  one  of  them — we  shall  not  so  easily 
bear  with  the  silk  and  gold  upon  the  seat  of  judgment, 
nor  with  ornament  of  oratory  in  the  mouth  of  the  mes- 
senger; we  shall  wish  that  his  words  may  be  simple, 
even  when  they  are  sweetest,  and  the  place  from  which 
he  speaks  like  a  marble  rock  in  the  desert,  about  which 
the  people  have  gathered  in  their  thirst/''  * 

Let  us  hear  the  words  of  this  strange  but  friendly  watch- 
man, and  go  resolutely  and  trustfully  in  the  direction  which 
they  indicate.  You  will  observe  that  the  whole  of  my  advice 
has  proceeded  upon  the  recognition  of  special  occasions 
upon  which  the  use  of  the  manuscript  may  be  justified  ; 
occasions,  for  example,  on  which  the  preacher  may  be 
addressing  not  only  his  equals  but  his  superiors  in 
culture  and  information,  or  occasions  which  demand  a 
Irigh  effort  in  criticism  or  controversy;  there  may  too  be 
occasions  on  which  it  is  important  to  restrain  all  passion 
and  to  give  a  judicial  statement  of  a  difficult  subject; 
nay  more,  I  will  go  even  farther,  and  freely  allow  that  a 
settled  minister,  whose  duty  it  is  to  teach  as  well  as  to 
preach,  may  now  and  again  ask  his  people  to  listen  to  an 
essay  or  a  series  of  essays  upon  doctrines  which  they  may 
be  advanced  enough  to  understand  and  aj^preciate.  All 
this  however  is  very  different  from  the  regular  work  of 
the  ordinary  ministry,  and  it  is  to  this  regular  work 
alone  that  the  most  of  my  remarks  have  been  directed. 
Yo\x  will  of  course  remind  me  that  Dr.  Chalmers  read 

*  John  Euskin,  "  Stones  of  Yenice,"  -vol.  ii.,  chap.  1,  §  12,  13,  14. 


60         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

his  sermons^  and  that  several  eminent  men  are  in  tlie 
habit  of  doing  tlie  same.  Quite  so ;  but  tliougli  Dr. 
Chalmers  read  it  does  not  follow  that  all  who  read  are 
Dr.  Chalmerses.  Don't  be  startled  at  the  suggestion 
that  Dr.  Chalmers  and  the  eminent  men  referred  to  cannot 
in  mj  opinion  justly  be  called  preachers !  Call  them 
effective  readers  of  eloquent  addresses ;  call  them  dignified 
or  vehement  repeaters  of  elaborate  dissertations;  but 
preachers  in  the  apostolic  sense  of  the  term  they  certainly 
ought  not  to  be  called.  They  read  well ;  their  intensity 
was  in  their  favour^  so  was  their  calm  dignity  :  but  they 
were  not  preachers.  Peter  and  Paul  were  preachers ; 
Knox  and  Bunyan  were  preachers;  Wesley  and  White- 
field  were  preachers ;  (Christmas  Evans  and  John  Elias  '^ 
were  preachers;)  may  their  mantle  fall  upon  our  rising 
ministry  1 


SENSATIONAL  PEEACHING. 

From  tlie  tenour  of  tlie  last  letter  you  may  possibly  infer 
tliat  I  am  in  favour  of  what  is  known  as  sensational 
preaching.  Before  contesting  the  justness  of  your  in- 
ference we  must  clearly  understand  what  we  respectively 
mean  by  that  ambiguous  expression.  If  you  ask  whether 
I  am  in  favour  of  sensatlonless  preaching  my  answer  will 
be  a  prompt  and  emphatic  negative^  but  you  will  not  be 
justified  in  regarding  this  negative  as  committing  me  to 
an  affirmative  upon  the  question  now  to  be  discussed. 
What  do  you  mean  by  the  term  ^'  sensational  preaching'^  ? 
I  presume  that  you  do  not  employ  the  expression  ab- 
stractly^  but  that  you  have  in  your  mind  certain  positive 
illustrations  to  which  you  refer  as  embodying  its  mean- 
ing. Unless  I  know  what  these  illustrations  are^  I  shall 
be  arguing  the  question  at  a  disadvantage  ;  at  the  outset^ 
therefore,  I  must  be  allowed  to  cross-examine  you  a 
little.  By  sensational  preaching  do  you  mean  a  kind  of 
pulpit  mountebankism  in  which  the  iiTCverent  mounte- 
banks play  all  sorts  of  grotesque  and  ridicalous  tricks, 
pulling  off  their  coats,  swaggering  from  side  to  side  of 
the  pulpit,  setting  up  what  they  are  pleased  to  call 
penitent  forms,  and  treating  with  contempt  all  the  decen- 
cies of  public  worship  ?  You  cannot  seriously  ask  me 
whether  I  approve  of  such  monstrous   profanity;     like 


62        Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

yourself,  I  detest  sucli  wicked  exliibitions  witli  all  my 
heart.  By  sensational  preaching  do  you  mean  a  scream- 
ing noise,  "  an  idiot's  tale,  full  of  sound  and  fury  signi- 
fying nothing  "  ?  Then  I  am  sure  you  will  not  attempt 
to  degrade  my  understanding  by  asking  whether  I  approve 
of  it.  By  sensational  preaching  do  you  mean  an  incohe- 
rent raving  about  things  in  general  and  nothing  in 
particular ;  a  perversion  of  every  text ;  an  insult  of 
common  sense ;  a  recital  of  anecdotes  which  are  untrue, 
and  a  use  of  illustrations  which  are  unmeaning  ?  Is  this 
the  sort  of  thing  you  describe  by  the  term  "  sensational 
preaching  "  ?  If  so,  I  need  not  put  my  indignant  answer 
into  words.  I  would  even  say  with  Lord  Bacon,  "  God 
forbid  that  every  man  who  can  take  unto  himself  boldness 
to  speak  an  hour  together  in  a  church,  upon  a  text, 
should  be  admitted  for  a  preacher,  though  he  mean 
never  so  well.'''  Boldness  is  not  always  moral  courage ; 
it  is  sometimes  mere  impudence,  and  only  thought  to  be 
religious  because  it  reaches  the  point  of  irreligion. 
Lord  Bacon  well  says ;  ''  It  may  be  justly  thought,  that 
amongst  many  causes  of  atheism,  which  are  miserably 
met  in  our  age ;  as  schisms  and  controversies,  profane 
scoffings  in  holy  matters,  and  others ;  it  is  not  the  least 
that  divers  do  adventure  to  handle  the  word  of  God 
which  are  unfit  and  unworthy.''  To-day  there  are  un- 
doubtedly many  who  set  themselves  up  to  preach,  who 
ought  to  become  scholars  in  the  infant  classes  of  Sunday- 
schools,  and  who  could  be  refused  admission  into  those 
useful  institutions  only  on  the  ground  of  discouraging 
the  scholars  by  their  ignorance  and  corrupting  them  by 
their  bad  manners.  They  are  wanting  in  every  claim  to 
respect;    their  emptiness,    their   vanity,  their   hilarious 


Sensational  PreacMng.  63 

animalism  wliicli  mistakes  a  good  digestion  for  Divine 
inspiration,  tlieir  contempt  of  men  whose  slioe-latchets 
tliey  are  not  worthy  to  unloose,  tlieir  vulgarity  which,  is 
only  rendered  harmless  by  its  disgusting  and  repulsive 
intensity,  must  always  mark  such  men  as  reckless 
intruders  upon  holy  ground,  and  condemn  them  to  the 
censure  of  all  earnest  and  thoughtful  people.  I  commit 
myself  to  this  opinion  with  the  full  consent  of  my  judg- 
ment :  at  the  same  time  I  cannot  pause  here  as  if  the 
case  were  complete ;  there  are  other  points  which  must 
be  considered  ;  there  are  discriminations  to  be  marked ; 
and  in  the  discharge  of  this  remaining  duty  our  views 
may  perhaps  come  into  sharp  collision. 

If  I  look  at  the  ministry  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  it 
was  undoubtedly,  in  the  highest  and  best  sense,  sensa- 
tional. "The  people  were  astonished  at  His  doctrine, 
for  He  taught  them  as  one  having  authority  and  not  as 
the  scribes.''''  Such  a  ministry  must  have  produced  a 
sensation.  "  And  they  were  all  amazed,  insomuch  that 
they  questioned  among  themselves,  saying.  What  thing 
is  this  ?  what  new  doctrine  is  this  ?  And  immediately 
His  fame  spread  abroad  throughout  all  the  region  round 
about  Gralilee.''^  You  cannot  regard  this  as  a  sensationless 
ministry.  "  And  all  bare  Him  witness,  and  wondered  at 
the  gracious  words  which  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth. 
.  .  They  were  astonished,  and  said.  Whence  hath 
this  man  this  vdsdom,  and  these  mighty  works  ?  .  .  . 
Never  man  spake  like  this  man.  .  .  .  They  were 
astonished  at  His  doctrine,  for  His  word  was  with  power. 
.  ,  .  And  they  were  all  amazed,  and  spake  among 
themselves,  saying.  What  a  word  is  this  V  Can  we 
have   any  doubt  that   such  a  ministry  was  sensational  ? 


61        Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

Now  we  are  called  to  preach  the  same  word^  and  are 
distinctly  promised  that  our  Lord  himself  shall  be  with 
us  alway.  With  such  a  doctrine  and  such  a  fellowship, 
how  can  we  content  ourselves  with  a  spiritless  ministry  ? 
We  may  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high^  and  have 
grace  poured  into  our  lips  ;  we  have  an  inspired  volume 
to  expound^  and  an  inspiring  Spirit  to  open  our  under- 
standing and  teach  us  the  word  of  wisdom  and  power ; 
why  then  should  not  our  hearers  say^  ^^Did  not  our 
hearts  burn  within  as  he  opened  unto  us  the  Scriptures  V 
You  will  remind  me  of  the  difference  between  the  disciple 
and  his  Lord_,  and  I  listen  to  the  suggestion  reverently ; 
but  let  me  remind  you  in  return  that  our  Lord  thoroughly 
identifies  Himself  with  His  servants  :  He  works  in  them ; 
He  has  given  them  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  express 
purpose  of  leading  them  into  all  truth ;  all  His  influence 
is  upon  their  side ;  they  are  the  subjects  of  His  interces- 
sion ;  He  visits  them  in  their  holiest  hours_,  and  carries 
them  for  ever  as  the  burden  of  His  tenderest  love ;  should 
they  not  then  be  mightier  than  their  enemies_,  and  bring 
with  them  into  the  sanctuary  the  power  of  an  endless 
life  ?  We  are  right  in  believing  that  we  can  never  carry 
the  Lord's  omnipotence  in  our  poor  dying  hands,  yet  let 
us  try  not  how  unlike  our  Lord  we  can  be,  and  yet  be 
His  ministers,  but  rather  let  us  plead  with  Him  until  He 
makes  us  conquerors  and  princes  in  His  kingdom.  I 
cannot  doubt  the  largeness  of  His  answer  to  the  prayer 
of  ambitious  love.  It  must  touch  Him  to  the  heart  to 
see  one  of  His  redeemed  flock  spending  day  and  night 
in  prayer  that  he,  a  saved  and  thankful  sinner,  may  be 
taught  the  wisdom  of  winning  souls  !  Can  the  Lord 
withhold  His  chief  blessing  from  such  a  suppliant  ?     Will 


Sensational  Preaching.  66 

He  not  clotlie  him  with  power^  and  give  him  the  rod  with 
which  rocks  may  be  broken  and  seas  be  divided  ?  We 
have  restrained  prayer  before  God ;  we  have  not  gone  to 
Him  as  if  we  would  take  His  kingdom  by  violence ;  we 
have  brought  the  least  of  our  vessels  to  the  fountain  of 
His  grace ;  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  our  ministry  has 
been  without  power  and  without  signs  following.  May 
I  ask  you  to  beware  of  the  dangerous  place,  where  our 
feet  well-nigh  slipped  ! 

If  we  turn  to  apostolic  history,  we  find  a  ministry  that 
was  undoubtedly  sensational.  "  These  that  have  turned 
the  world  upside  down  have  come  hither  also.  .  .  . 
Long  time  abode  they  speaking  boldly  in  the  Lord,  which 
gave  testimony  unto  the  word  of  His  grace.  .  .  .  My 
speech  and  my  preaching  was  not  with  enticing  words  of 
man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
power.  .  .  .  Our  gospel  came  not  unto  you  in  word 
only,  but  also  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in 
much  assurance.  .  .  .  And  now.  Lord,  behold  their 
threatenings,  and  grant  unto  Thy  servants,  that  with  all 
boldness  they  may  speak  Thy  word,  by  stretching  forth 
Thine  hand  to  heal,  and  that  signs  and  wonders  may  be 
done  by  the  name  of  Thy  holy  Child  Jesus. '''  Such  a 
ministry  must  have  been  marked  by  extreme  excitement, 
must  have  been  sensational  in  an  unparalleled  degree. 
Of  course  it  will  be  answered  that  the  power  of  working 
miracles  has  been  withdrawn,  and  that  we  address  our- 
selves to  a  civilization  which  was  unknown  to  the 
apostles ;  let  this  be  granted,  and  what  then  ?  This  is 
not  a  question  as  to  the  particular  signs  which  should 
follow  our  ministry,  but  whether  our  ministry  should  pro- 
duce an  appropriate  effect  upon  our  hearers ;  should  our 


66        Ad  Glerum :   Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier. 

words  be  heard  as  an  idle  tale,  or  as  the  messages  of 
God  ?  Should  our  preaching  be  languid  or  fervent  ? 
Should  our  ministry  lie  remote  from  the  common  ex- 
perience of  the  world,  or  should  it  fall  closely  upon  the 
whole  daily  life  of  our  people  ?  Should  we  preach  merely 
as  if  we  had  learned  a  lesson,  or  as  if  we  had  seen  God 
face  to  face  and  received  a  message  from  His  lips  ?  "We 
give  but  a  poor  account  of  the  failure  of  our  ministry  when 
we  say  that  the  gift  of  miracles  is  withdrawn  and  that  the 
times  have  changed.  Our  complaint  conveys  the  impres- 
sion, that'  Jesus  Christ  himself  has  changed,  and  that  the 
truth  is  no  longer  what  it  was.  If  the  times  have  changed 
our  ministry  should  be  adapted  to  the  altered  circum- 
stances; upon  the  indifference  which  may  have  lulled  the 
public  mind  we  should  pour  the  terrors  and  threatenings  of 
the  Lord ;  in  the  hearing  of  the  luxurious  and  effeminate 
we  should  preach  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross ;  and  on  the 
attention  of  the  worldling  and  the  scoffer  we  should  force 
the  realities  and  claims  of  eternity.  The  gospel  can  be 
adapted  to  all  ages ;  we  believe  that  to  the  end  of  the 
world  it  will  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation ;  and 
we  are  called  to  be  watchmen,  taking  note  of  the  signs 
of  the  times,  and  changing  our  voice  with  the  varying 
aspects  of  the  age.  The  tokens  which  accompany  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel,  as  the  seal  of  God,  may  not  be 
precisely  the  same  in  any  two  centuries  ;  but  the  gospel 
itself  is  the  same  for  ever,  and  I  cannot  but  feel  that  as 
ministers  we  should  look  for  the  special  token  of  Divine 
favour  which  may  be  adapted  to  the  peculiar  circumstances 
under  which  we  labour.  If  we  are  faithful  servants  God 
will  not  withhold  His  witness,  and  though  that  witness 
may  not  be  given  as  fire  upon  Carmel,  or  as  the  signs  and 


Sensational  Preaching,  67 

wonders  of  tlie  apostolic  age,  it  shall  be  so  obviously  ac- 
corded in  tbe  quickening  and  spiritual  growth  of  our 
bearers  as  to  leave  no  doubt  tbat  God  himself  is  our  in- 
spiration and  strength. 

Passing  from  apostolic  times,  and  looking  into  the 
lives  of  men  who  have  done  most  to  establish  the 
character  and  power  of  the  Christian  pulpit,  it  will  be 
found  that  they  have  been  what  may  be  justly  called 
sensational  p'eacliers.  Look,  for  example,  at  the  case  of 
Whitefield;  '^1  hardly  ever  knew  him,^^  says  Cornelius 
Winter,  '^finish  a  discourse  without  weeping  more  or  less; 
his  voice  was  often  interrupted  by  his  affections,  and 
such  was  the  scope  he  gave  to  his  feelings  sometimes, 
that  he  exceedingly  wept,  stamped  loudly  and  passionately, 
and  was  frequently  so  overcome  that  for  a  few  seconds 
you  would  suspect  he  never  could  recover ;  as  soon  as  he 
was  seated  in  his  chair,  nature  demanded  relief,  and  gained 
it  by  a  vast  discharge  from  the  stomach  usually,  with  a 
considerable  quantity  of  blood,  before  he  was  at  liberty 
to  speak/^  I  am  not  to  be  supposed  to  regard  this  as  a 
model  which  young  ministers  should  adopt ;  each  man 
must  of  course  work  according  to  his  temperament,  yet 
he  should  in  my  opinion  earnestly  try  the  effect  of  disci- 
pline upon  a  temperament  which  is  likely  to  make  his 
ministry  gloomy  and  frigid.  Take  away  the  element  of 
joy  from  the  gospel,  and  what  is  left  ?  The  gospel  itself 
is  then  destroyed.  Whitefield^s  spirit  was  stirred  within 
him ;  the  cold  message  never  could  have  come  from  his 
tongue  of  fire ;  "  in  Europe,  in  America,  on  board  ship, 
in  the  workhouse,  in  the  jail,  in  the  hall  of  nobility,  in 
the  parish  church  or  dissenting  chapel,  in  the  street,  the 
mai'ket  place,  or  bowling  green,  pressing  the  gospel  on 

f2 


68         Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

the  attention  of  soldiers,  mariners,,  emigrants,  outcasts, 
culprits,  lords,  and  wits,  and  mixed  multitudes,  tlie  man 
was  the  same,  and  his  object  was  one — to  save  souls/' 
When  he  returned  to  Bristol  after  a  short  absence,  ^^  the 
people  blessed  him  as  he  passed  along  the  streets;  though 
preaching  five  times  a  week  he  could  not  appease  the 
eager  crowds.  It  was  difficult  for  him  to  make  his  way- 
through  them  to  the  pulpit.  Some  climbed  upon  the 
roof  of  the  church,  others  hung  upon  the  rails  of  the 
organ  loft.  .  .  .  When  he  preached  his  farewell 
sermon,  the  irrepressible  feelings  of  his  hearers  broke  out 
into  sobs  and  tears  all  over  the  house.  They  followed  him 
weeping  into  the  street.  They  kept  him  busy  the  next 
day  from  early  morning  till  midnight,  in  comforting  or 
counselling  them,  and  he  had  to  escape  from  their  impor- 
tunities secretly,  during  the  night,  for  London."'^  And 
when  he  reached  London,  "  constables  were  stationed  at 
the  door  to  restrain  the  multitude  of  hearers ;  churches 
were  crowded  on  week  days,  an-d  on  the  autumnal  Sunday- 
mornings  the  streets  were  thronged  before  dawn  with 
people  lighting  their  way  by  lanterns  to  hear  him."''* 
Or  take  the  case  of  Joseph  Alleine,  the  celebrated  author 
of  an  ''  Alarm  to  the  Unconverted.-"  His  biographer, 
the  Eev.  Charles  Stanford,  says  :  '^ '  The  king's  business 
requireth  haste,'  was  his  constant  feeling,  and  he  could 
not  stay  to  study  the  structure  of  sentences  while  dying 
men  were  waiting  for  the  word  of  life.  Had  the  young 
preacher  of  St.  Mary's  been  advised  to  think  more 
of  verbal  refinement,  he  would  probably  have  re- 
plied in   language   like   that    of    John    Owen,    ^  Know 

♦Stevens's  History  of  Methodism,  vol.  i.,  pp.  89,  90. 


Sensational  PreacJiing.  (59 

that   you   have    to   do   with   a   person,    who,    provided 
his    words    do    but    express     the     sentiments     of    his 
mind,  entertains  a  fixed  and  absolute   disregard  for  all 
elegance    and    ornaments    of    speech/       His    addresses 
had  far  higher  elements  of  excellence.     They  all  breathed 
a  winning  tenderness,  and  all  revealed  an  amazing  power 
of  rapid,  homely,  shattering  appeal.     The  thoughts  were 
all  impetuous  with  a  rush  of  fresh  and  glowing  life ;  and 
though  there  was  the  prophet^ s  rough  mantle  there  was  also 
his  chariot  of  fire.    Every  meaning  was  clear,  every  stroke 
told,    every   gesture  seemed   to    speak, — vividus  vultus, 
vividi  oculi,  vividoe  manus,  denique  omnia  vivida-.     One  of 
his  hearers  tells  us  that  ^  he  never  preached  without  a 
long    expostulation    with    the    impenitent,    vehemently 
urging  them  to  come  to  some  good  resolve  before  he  and 
they  parted,  and  to  make  their  choice  for  life  or  death, 
expressing  his  great  unwillingness  to  leave  the  subject 
till  he  could  have  some  assurance  that  he  had  not  fought 
against  sin  as  one  that  beateth  the  air,  and  that  much  of 
his  power  arose  from  the  point  and  seasonableness  of  his 
words,  spoken  as  they  were  with  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  individual  cases  of  those  who  formed  his  auditory.^ 
There    was   piercing   directness ;    the    shafts   of    living 
Scripture  flew  straight  to  their  intended  mark,  and  each 
swift  sentence  had  an  aim  clear  as  had  the  arrow  found 
on    the   ancient   battle-field,    bearing   the   motto,    *"  For 
Philip's    eye.-'     .     .     .     With    shouting   voice,    flashing 
eye,  and  a  soul  on  fire  with  love,  he  proclaimed  a  com- 
pleted and  gratuitous  salvation  to  all  who  were  willing  to 
accept  it.     The  Spirit   of  God  gave  his  message  great 
eff'ect,  and  multitudes,  through  all  the  days  of  heaven,  will 
remember  Taunton  Magdalene  as  the  place  where  they 


70        Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

first  beheld  that  great  sight — *  the  Lamb  of  God  who 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ! '  '^  Was  this  sensa- 
tionless  preaching  ?  Take  another  illustration.  Of 
William  Barns,  the  missionary  to  China,  it  is  said: 
"  While  preaching  for  his  father,  and  very  solemnly  press- 
ing upon  his  auditors  the  immediate  acceptance  of  Christ, 
the  whole  of  the  vast  assembly  were  overpowered ;  the 
Holy  Spirit  seemed  to  come  down  as  a  mighty  rushing 
sound,  and  to  fill  the  place  :  very  many  were  that  day 
struck  to  the  heart ;  the  sanctuary  was  filled  with  dis- 
tressed and  inquiring  souls.''^  Frederick  William  Eobert- 
son  cannot  have  been  a  sensationless  preacher :  "  It  was 
always  as  great  a  mental  exertion  to  recall  as  to  think 
out  a  sermon  ;  and  he  was  frequently  unable,  if  he  waited 
till  Monday,  to  write  out  the  notes  of  what  he  had  de- 
livered on  Sunday,  unless  it  had  been  partially  written 
beforehand.  After  some  of  his  most  earnest  and  pas- 
sionate utterances  he  has  said  to  a  friend,  'Have  I  made 
a  fool  of  myself  ?^  ^'  We  ought  to  be  very  sure,  in  con- 
demning sensational  preaching,  that  we  do  not  condemn 
such  men  as  these,  for  while  they  are  not  by  any  means 
to  be  classed  with  the  grotesque  pretenders  described  at. 
the  beginning  of  this  letter,  they  certainly  cannot  be 
classed  with  the  heartless  formalists  who  have  turned  the 
gospel  into  a  metaphysical  enigma,  or  a  lofty  speculation 
which  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  sin  and  sorrow 
of  the  world. 

This  view  of  the  subject  permits  a  natural  reference  to 
what  may  be  termed  emotional  preaching.  I  have  a 
strong  conviction  that  our  sermons  should  be  more  and 
more  marked  by  deep  Christian  feeling.  The  subject  is 
one  of  extreme  delicacy,  without  question;  for  nothing  is 


Sensational  Preaching.  71 

more  odious  than  an  affectation  of  patlios^  and  nothing 
more  likely  to  be  resented  than  an  artificial  attempt 
upon  the  emotions  of  our  hearers ;  you  will  not  however 
understand  me  as  advocating  anything  so  hypocritical 
and  abominable^  so  I  need  not  waste  your  time  in  fencing 
my  position.  I  wish  to  draw  your  attention  to  the 
suggestion  that  the  emotion  of  our  sermons  is  not  equal 
to  their  information.  At  this  moment,  for  example,  there 
is  lying  before  me  a  volume  of  really  able  sermons,  in 
which  I  have  not  found  one  touch  of  natural  pathos. 
The  sentences  have  been  carefully  constructed ;  there  is 
no  appearance  of  any  word  having  beeu  hastily  adopted  ; 
the  logic  is  good ;  the  theology  is  sound :  yet  it  would 
almost  appear  that  either  the  preacher  had  no  heart,  or  he 
preached  to  hearers  who  had  none.  Throughout  the 
whole  production  there  is  a  cold  scholastic  air ;  and  in 
the  effort  after  scientific  precision  the  emotions  have 
been  quite  overlooked.  Surely  this  is  not  Christian 
preaching ;  it  is  vigorous  and  even  eloquent  talk  ahoitt 
Christianity,  but  the  spirit  of  sympathy,  tenderness,  and 
anxious  importunity  is  not  in  it  -,  the  anatomy  is  good, 
but  where  is  the  loving  and  earnest  life  ?  There  is  too 
in  these  sermons  a  decidedly  controversial  tone ;  the 
preacher  is  always  on  the  defensive  :  an  evil  spirit  seems 
to  be  looking  at  him,  and  constantly  threatening  an 
assault ;  consequently  the  spirit  of  criticism  is  excited  in 
the  hearers,  and  one  feels  tempted  to  say,  ^^  well,  if  he  is 
going  to  be  so  desperately  logical  as  all  this  we  must 
watch  for  his  tripping  ;^^  the  hearer  is  never  allowed  to 
rest;  his  anxieties  are  stimulated;  and  even  when  the 
preacher  ventures  to  assure  him  that  the  ground  is  safe 
he  gives  the  assurance  in    a  tone  which  suggests  that 


72        Ad  Clerum:    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

after  all  there  is  a  little  reason  for  uneasiness.  In  this 
way  tlie  gospel  ceases  to  be  good  tidings,  and  becomes  an 
unprofitable  controversy.  Is  this  right  ?  Should  not 
logic  lead  to  something  better  than  itself  ?  If  we  fall 
short  of  love,  do  we  not  fail  of  the  chief  end  of  our 
ministry  ?  Let  us  think  of  Jesus  Christ,  who,  when  He 
came  near  the  city,  wept  over  it ;  and  let  us  be  mindful  of 
Paul,  whose  argumentative  power  has  never  been  denied, 
who  said,  "  many  walk,  of  whom  I  have  told  you  often, 
and  tell  you  now  even  weeping,  that  they  are  the  enemies 
of  the  cross  of  Christ,^^  and  who  ceased  not  to  warn 
his  hearers  day  and  night  with  tears.  The  gospel  is 
adapted  to  the  heart  of  the  world ;  it  seeks  to  bind  up  the 
broken-hearted  and  comfort  all  that  mourn,  and  therefore 
should  be  preached  in  a  spirit  kindred  with  its  own.^  A 
harsh  controversial  statement  of  its  doctrines  may  gain 
the  preacher  a  reputation  as  a  skilful  debater,  but  it  will 
never  give  him  the  high  position  of  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Perhaps  I  shall  not  have  a  better  opportunity  than  in 
this  connection  of  referring  to  a  fallacious  analogy  which 
is  sometimes  attempted  by  the  supporters  of  a  very 
questionable  sensationalism.  It  has  been  complained 
that  the  minister  does  not  often  compare  favourably  with 
the  barrister ;  the  appeals  of  the  former  are  said  to  be 
inferior  to  those  of  the  latter,  and  the  effect  is  considered 
to  suffer  proportionately.  Without  going  into  the  argu- 
ment which  might  be  justly  founded  upon  the  difference 
of  subjects  which  engage  the  attention  of  the  respective 
speakers,  it  may  be  enough  to  refer  to  two  or  three 
points  which  destroy  the  tenableness  of  the  analogy.  Are 
our  hearers  bound  upon  oath  to  listen  to  us,  and  to  give 


Sensational  Preacliing,  73 

tlieir  verdict  before  leaving  the  cliurch?  Set  a  barrister  to 
expound  an  act  of  parliament  eighteen  hundred  years  old  ; 
let  him  address  the  jury  upon  it  twice  every  week  in  the 
year ;  let  each  juror  pay  five  shillings  a  quarter  for  a 
seat  in  the  jury  box ;  let  the  barrister  call  upon  the  jury 
for  a  monthly  collection  to  enable  other  barristers  to  ex- 
pound the  same  act  of  parliament  to  other  juries ;  when 
the  court  room  falls  out  of  repair  let  the  jury  be  called 
upon  to  pay  for  its  restoration ;  and  when  the  barrister 
has  thus  put  himself  upon  an  outside  equality  with  the 
minister^  let  him  have  five  years'  work_,  then  five  more,  let 
him  double  the  ten  and  add  five^  and  then  we  shall  see 
how  he  compares  for  freshness,  variety,  and  power  with  a 
painstaking  minister  of  Jesus  Christ. 


VI. 

THE  HOMILIST:  MAN  AND  BOOK. 

Skeleton  is  a  word  wliicli  means  different  things  to 
different  people  :  wlien  a  timid  lady  says  it  slie  shudders 
as  if  a  cold  hand  had  touched  her  heart  j  when  a  needy 
preacher  says  it  he  glows  with  thankful  delight.  To 
him  that  hideous  word  means  wealthy  and  the  more 
other  people  are  repelled  by  it  the  more  he  secretly 
rejoices.  You  may  have  heard  of  a  minister  who,  on 
being  told  of  a  volume  of  sermons  which  he  had  not  seen, 
exclaimed,  '^  I  have  preached  three  of  the  volumes,  and 
now  that  there  is  a  fourth  I  feel  as  if  I  had  suddenly 
fallen  on  great  spoil.-''  This  was  candid,  if  not  ingenious 
and  original.  Now  without  for  a  moment  supposing  that 
you  will  ever  be  a  needy  preacher,  I  may  take  the  liberty 
of  pointing  out  one  or  two  sources  of  supply  which  are 
nofc  unknown  to  many  respectable  brethren  of  large  di- 
gestive and  respiratory  power.  As  the  projector  of  the 
Pidjnt  Analyst,  its  editor  for  the  first  two  years,  and 
its  most  voluminous  contributor  up  to  the  present 
moment,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  a  word  on  its  behalf. 
Probably  its  design  surpasses  its  execution,  yet  as 
furnishing  variety  of  preaching  it  is  not  unworthy  of  your 
attention;  I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  method  pre- 
dominates J  it  contains  both  native  and  foreign  products, 


The  HGinilist :  Man  and  Booh.  75 

and  so  supplies  tlie  most  varied  illustrations  of  homiletic 
treatment. 

Do  you  know  David  Thomas  of  Stockwell^ — editor  of 
tlie  Homilist  ?  If  you  do  not  know  kim  personally  you 
will  find  it  to  your  advantage  to  know  him  editorially. 
The  first  time  I  heard  him  preach  he  was  in  his  own 
pulpit,  conducting  an  ordinary  morning  service.  Imme- 
diately on  his  opening  the  vestry  door  I  was  struck  with 
his  noble,  animated,  and  expressive  countenance,  and 
felt  predisposed  towards  him.  David  Thomas  is  a 
man, — physically  and  mentally  every  inch  a  man.  Be- 
yond many  even  of  his  most  flourishing  brethren,  he 
makes  ''  a  fair  show  in  the  flesh  -."  his  great  head  is  like 
a  rock ;  his  immense  black  eyes  are  full  of  gentle  lustre ; 
and  his  mouth,  if  not  very  elaborately  chiselled,  is  not 
without  pleasant  lines.  There  is  nothing  secret  in  all 
the  open  sunny  face  j  perhaps  if  anything,  it  is  too  open, 
there  are  no  permanent  shadows  in  which  power  may  be 
hiding  itself,  no  cavernous  marks  as  if  the  soul  had  often 
been  driven  back  upon  itself  and  compelled  to  look  out 
upon  the  world  from  secret  places ;  the  soul  rather  seems 
as  if  it  had  generally  had  its  own  way, — so  boldly  and 
shiningly  does  it  express  its  dominance  in  the  expansive 
and  unsuspecting  face.  Yet  the  countenance  is  not  with- 
out pensiveness  j  the  eye  has  occasional  shadowings  which 
to  me  looked  as  if  the  soul  was  not  altogether  a  stranger 
to  melancholy, — as  if  now  and  again  it  saw  the  cor- 
ruption, the  distress  and  poverty,  which  lie  under  the 
world^s  fairest  exterior.  I  can  quite  believe  this  to  be 
the  case.  David  Thomas  has  not  forgotten  other  people^s 
darkness  in  his  own  sunshine ;  to  him  human  life  is  not 
altogether  a  wedding  festival;  he  occasionally  hears  other 


76         Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a   Yoimg  FreacJier. 

sounds  than  tlie  clasli  of  rejoicing  bells^  and  can  lieave  a 
sigh  when  other  men  cannot  understand  his  emotion. 
Understand  ?  Why_,  whenever  were  such  men  as  David 
Thomas  understood  ?  Sparrows  cannot  understand  eagles^ 
— can  the  minnow  understand  leviathan  ?  David  Thomas 
is  intellectually  qualified  to  be  at  the  head  of  his  denomi- 
nation^ and  if  his  sectarianism  had  been  equal  to  his 
genius  he  would  long  before  now  have  been  as  officially 
conspicuous  as  he  has  been  mentally  influential,  How 
very  hard  those  excellent  servants  of  the  worlds  called 
committee  men,  must  have  winked^  not  to  have  seen  David 
Thomas  !  They  must  have  blindfolded  one  another ;  they 
must  have  sealed  one  another's  eyes ;  they  must  have 
actually  put  each  other's  eyes  out !  So  much  the  worse 
for  the  committee  men^ — not  for  David  Thomas  !  He  has 
a  most  cordial  dislike  of  societies^  resolutions,  amend- 
mentSj  and  those  infinite  nuisances  called  sub-committees ; 
and  as  a  reward  for  his  dislike  he  has  been  allowed  to  live 
without  secretarial  patronage  and  official  promotion. 
Happily,  the  world  is  the  better  for  this  ostracism ;  David 
Thomas  has  exerted  a  greater  influence  (often  indirect 
and  unacknowledged)  upon  the  British  pulpit  than  any 
living  man  with  whose  name  I  am  acquainted ;  and  his 
influence  will  live  for  good  when  those  who  have  done 
their  best  to  keep  him  in  the  background  are  remem- 
bered no  more  for  ever. 

What  then,  you  will  say, — is  David  Thomas  without 
fault,  the  perfect  man  and  the  upright,  whom  we  are 
called  upon  by  high  authority  to  mark  and  behold  ? 
Probably,  seeing  that  he  is  only  a  man,  there  may  be 
somewhat  of  inperfection  about  him ;  it  would  not  be  un- 
natural, would  it  ?     David  Thomas  is  human  enough  to 


The  Somilist :  Man  and  Booh.  77 

be  imperfect,  but  perfect  enough  to  be  above  tlie  reproacb. 
of  ruany  who  are  hardly  human.  Let  us  allow,  for  ex- 
ample, that  he  finds  it  very  difficult  to  adopt  the  step  of 
intellectually  little  men,  and  that  he  is  impatient  of  their 
contradiction,  their  tardiness,  or  their  timidity, — what 
then  ?  Undoubtedly  all  this  may  be  said  justly  of  David 
Thomas;  he  cannot  dwarf  himself  to  the  measure  of 
ordinary  society ;  he  delights  to  take  wing  for  the  open 
firmament  of  heaven,  while  others  may  be  content  to  sit 
in  the  window  of  a  select  conventicle;  he  aspires  to 
know  the  universe,  while  others  spend  their  lives  in 
studying  a  footprint.  This  necessarily  removes  him  from 
the  common  courses  of  the  world, — it  isolates  and  indi- 
vidualizes him,  and  gives  him.  an  appearance  of  scornful 
self-sufficiency  which  is  really  not  in  his  nature.  Let  us 
further  allow  that  when  an  idea  fully  lays  hold  of  his 
mind  he  cannot  accommodate  himself  to  the  cautiousness 
which  suggests  doubts  of  its  practicability,  he  condemns 
it  as  little,  contemptible,  puerile,  and  absurd ;  he  uses 
hard  words  about  those  who  do  not  instantly  accept  his 
propositions  and  work  for  them  with  an  enthusiasm  which 
ignores  all  difficulty  and  danger ;  let  us  allow  too  that  in 
referring  to  his  purposes  and  enterprises  he  employs  a 
great  many  capital  letters  and  a  great  many  notes  of 
admiration  ; — I  grant  all  this,  but  what  of  it  ?  We  must 
get  behind  it  all  if  we  would  know  the  man ;  we  must 
know  how  much  of  it  is  essence  and  how  much  accident, 
and  not  commit  ourselves  to  the  fooFs  error  of  mistaking 
a  flourish  of  the  hand  for  a  habit  of  the  soul.  I  have 
sometimes  felt  that  David  Thomas  spoke  with  impetuous 
unreflecting  scorn  of  a  certain  class  of  his  brethren;  he 
had  no  patience  with  them ;  he  derided  them,  and  did  not 


78         Ad  Clerum :  Adcices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

always  stop  to  give  tliem  their  due  :  on  tlie  other  hand, 
he  has  been  most  generous  in  his  recognition  of  incipient 
power,  and  done  much  towards  its  development ;  he  has 
sought  out  the  ^Village  Hampdens^'  and  ^''mute  inglorious 
Milfcons/^  and  encouraged  them  to  put  forth  their  strength; 
and  no  man  has  spoken  more  stimulatingly  to  some  who 
have  laboured  under  difficulties  which  had  daunted  and 
unnerved  them.  Both  these  considerations  must  be 
taken  into  account  in  estimating  the  man ; .  having  looked 
at  them  both  myself,  I  give  it  as  my  opinion  that  the 
generosity  of  David  Thomas  far  exceeds  his  severity. 
In  a  few  rare  cases  indeed  his  generosity  must  have 
boen  regarded  as  somewhat  embarrassing ;  as  for  example 
when  he  has  extemporised  a  eulogium  upon  a  Welsh 
minister  who  may  have  unexpectedly  presented  himself 
in  the  Stockwell  congregation.  The  Welsh  brother  has 
occasionally  been  pourtrayed  as  a  prodigy,  '''  full  of  poetic 
fire,^"*  "  his  soul  ringing  with  the  music  of  his  native 
hills  '/^  the  unhappy  man  has  been  described  as  melo- 
dious, tuneful,  philosophic,  and  eloquent,  overflowing 
with  pathos  and  burning  with  zeal,  and  has  then  been 
publicly  asked  to  preach  on  the  spot !  The  martyr  has  had 
no  escape, — ^preach  he  must !  In  two  cases  out  of  three 
his  sermon  has  probably  been  one  long  stammer, — one 
continuous  grotesque  contradiction  of  every  word  which 
the  pictorial  doctor  has  said  of  him  !  What  then  ?  Why, 
of  course,  the  doctor  instantly  replied  to  every  disap- 
pointed objector  that  the  preacher  was  all  that  had  been 
said  of  him — in  Welsh  !  To  this  neat  answer  no  Stockwell 
man  could  ever  return  a  contradictory  reply.  On  this 
side  of  David  Thomases  character  no  doubt  there  is  a 
fault,  but  let  him  that  is  without  sin  cast  the  first  stone. 


The  Homilist :  Man  and  Booh.  79 

Dr.  Thomases  brain  is  remarkable  for  capacity,,  quality, 
and  strength.  Phrenologists  would  assign  him  an  ex- 
traordinary central  brain,  giving  evidence  of  unusual 
analytic  and  metaphysical  power.  This  would  be  just, 
though  Dr.  Thomas  has  cultivated  his  analytic  gift  more 
highly  than  his  metaphysical  faculty.  Probably  this  has 
arisen  from  the  necessity  which  his  work  has  imposed 
upon  him  ;  his  thinking  power  has  always  been  employed  in 
working  out  results  for  the  pulpit,  rather  than  in  abstract 
metaphysics,  though  in  so  working  he  has  often,  almost 
invariably  indeed,  worked  quite  as  much  as  a  psychologist 
as  a  theologian.  Possibly  Dr.  Thomas  has  not  had  the 
advantage  of  the  severest  educational  drill ;  possibly  also 
his  education  has  developed  his  more  urgent  faculties 
at  the  expense  of  faculties  which  though  latent  were 
neither  narrow  nor  feeble.  Circumstances  may  have 
compelled  him  to  abandon  purely  speculative  philosophy, 
and  to  turn  his  attention  to  concrete  effects;  yet  even 
under  such  compulsion  he  has  shown  that  if  he  had  not 
been  the  first  of  textual  analysts  he  would  have  been 
amongst  the  foremost  of  abstract  thinkers.  His  meta- 
physics are  not  scholastic;  in  fact  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  he  is  more  than  ordinarily  read  in  formal  meta- 
physics, because  he  always  works  from  intuition  rather 
than  information,  and  his  writings  generally  convey  the 
impression  that  he  owes  less  to  acquisition  than  to  nature. 
David  Thomas  seldom  sees  truths  in  their  individuality ; 
one  truth  is  related  to  another;  no  principle  works  alone; 
the  many  worlds  are  one  universe ;  the  many  waters  are 
one  sea ;  and  all  the  lights  which  brighten  the  firmament 
are  referable  to  one  central  and  everlasting  splendour  : 
to  discover  their  relations,  to  set  them  in  order,  and  to 


80         Ad  Glermn :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

sliow  liow  tliey  converge  in  glory  upon  tlie  throne  of  God^ 
and  thence  operate  for  the  good  of  all  creatures,,  is  David 
Thomases  chief  joy. 

Yet  David  Thomas  cannot  be  justly  described  as  imagi- 
native. I  have  spoken  of  him  taking  wing  for  the 
open  firmament  of  heaven^  and  the  figure  is  not  exag- 
gerated ;  yet  while  he  is  on  the  wing  he  is  rather  looking 
at  the  relations  and  proportions  of  things  than  singing 
^^  songs  without  words  -/'  when  he  does  sing,  it  is  at  the 
end  of  an  argument ;  when  he  dreams,  it  is  after  the 
fashion  of  a  syllogism.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  term  he  has  much  fancy ;  there 
is  a  finality  about  most  of  his  statements  which  shows 
that  he  has  reached  his  limit ;  there  is  no  coloured  haze 
beyond,  which  may  be  concealing  continents  or  seas ;  the 
reader  feels  that  he  can  go  all  the  way  without  ever  losing 
sight  of  clear  blue  sky;  David  Thomas  never  ascends  alone, 
striking  with  strong  wing  into  circles  inaccessible  to  every 
visitant  except  dreaming  and  contemplative  fancy;  he 
is  often  above,  but  always  on  well-known  highways ;  the 
cloud  never  receives  him  out  of  our  sight,  nor  does  he 
ever  hear  things  which  it  is  not  lawful  to  utter ;  he  utters 
all  that  he  hears, — in  inspiring  and  tuneful  language  in- 
deed, yet  capable  of  being  written  in  common  ink.  It 
may  be  want  of  expression  rather  than  want  of  thought, 
but  certainly  David  Thomas,  from  the  one  cause  or  the 
other,  though  fond  of  poetic  language,  is  never  absolutely 
carried  away  by  poetic  inspiration.  He  cannot  poise 
himself  on  his  wings  and  linger  long  in  the  light,  as  if 
detained  by  sights  which  held  him  by  some  subtle  en- 
chantment ;  we  can  hear  the  flapping  of  his  wings,  and 
see  him  hurrying  along  the  courses  of  the  wind;    and 


The  Eomilist:  Man  and  Boole.  81 

while  we  admire  liis  strengtli  we  cannot  but  feel  that  lie 
has  not  trespassed  upon  the  highest  fields  of  poetry. 
David  Thomas  is  characterized  by  ideality  rather  than  by 
pure  imagination ;  many  of  his  homilies  indeed  are  flecked 
with  choice  colourings  of  quoted  poetry^  but  his  own 
writing  was  never  dictated  by  visions  of  the  night ;  he 
would  cross-examine  the  spirit  of  dreams,  and  know 
how  far  the  stranger  could  justify  himself  by  valid 
human  reasoning.  Nor  is  all  this  to  be  regretted.  The 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ  should  bear  a  plain  message  to 
the  world ;  he  has  to  confront  the  fact  of  sin  with  the 
fact  of  salvation ;  he  has  to  answer  the  questionings  of 
the  heart  with  the  revelations  of  God.  In  doing  this 
work  Dr.  Thomas  speaks  with  the  most  modern  accent, 
and  never  with  '^  the  holy  tone  ''  which  the  Scotch  desi- 
derated in  the  preaching  of  Whitefield.  His  preaching  is 
the  New  Testament  translated  into  the  language  of  to- 
day,— choice  enough  for  the  scholar,  robust  enough  for 
the  man  of  common  business. 

David  Thomas  will  be  known  to  a  remote  posterity  by 
his  great  work — The  Eomilist.  To  that  work  he  has  been 
faithful  through  many  years  of  hard  toil  and  anxious  care. 
The  slovenly  man  (for  he  is  slovenly  in  some  things,  not- 
withstanding his  supposed  liking  for  good  tailoring)  issued 
the  first  seven  volumes  without  any  date, — no  date  on  the 
title-page, — no  date  at  the  end  of  the  preface  !  The  thing 
is  so  unbusiness-like  as  to  be  almost  incredible,  yet  it  is 
a  fact.  That  David  Thomas  of  Stockwell  should  never 
have  thought  of  putting  a  date  to  his  work  is  quite  con- 
ceivable by  all  who  know  him  ;  that  the  somnolent  house 
of  Ward  &  Co.  should  have  omitted  the  date  is  not  sur- 
prising j  but  how  the  printer's  came  to   oPiit  the  usual 

G 


82        Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

MDCCC.^  etc.,  is  not  easy  of  explanation.  The  omission 
is  of  great  consequence,  and  will  be  increasingly  so  with 
the  lapse  of  time.  Suppose  that  a  minister  shall  fifty 
years  hence  take  up  a  volume  of  the  HomiUst,  wishing  to 
know  when  it  was  written,  that  he  may  compare  it  with 
the  current  literature  of  its  own  day, — how  perplexed  he 
will  be  !  He  will  not  know  from  the  volume  itself  whether 
it  was  written  ten  years  ago,  twenty,  or  fifty.  This  is  to  be 
regretted,  for  it  is  one  of  the  little  wheels  on  which  good 
machinery  so  much  depends. 

The  Homilist  did  not  enjoy  a  very  flourishing  beginning. 
On  the  cover  of  one  of  the  early  numbers  the  despondent 
editor  announced  that  it  did  ^^not  pay,^^  and  that  unless 
the  circulation  increased  it  must  be  given  up.  Happily 
the  circulation  did  increase,  and  the  Homilist  has  since, 
as  a  class  magazine,  commanded  unexampled  success. 
In  my  opinion  this  success  has  been  honestly  and  most 
fully  deserved.  Nothing  is  due  to  trickery,  sensational- 
ism, or  denominational  prestige;  all  credit  is  due  to 
perseverance,  ability,  and  a  happy  adaptation  of  means  to 
ends.  Never  was  the  saying  "  the  labourer  is  worthy  of 
his  hire  ''  more  faithfully  fulfilled  than  in  the  brightening 
and  expanding  history  of  the  Homilist ;  nor  has  the  saying 
'^perseverance  conquers  obstacles"  been  more  honour- 
ably exemplified  than  in  the  steadiness  of  its  indomi- 
table and  fertile  editor.  When  the  Homilist  made  its 
appearance  men  were  becoming  tired  of  dividing  every- 
thing in  heaven  and  on  earth  into  first,  second,  and  third, 
with  three  subdivisions  under  each  head,  three  points  of 
application,  and  with  ^'  finally,  one  word  more,  and  lastly'^ 
for  a  melancholy  peroration.  At  that  dark  time  any 
brother  who  could  make  a  suggestion  bordering  upon 


The  Romidst :  Man  and  Booh.  83 

novelty  was  privily  called  for  by  tlie  wise  men,  and  dili- 
gently inquired  of  concerning  tlie  birth  of  the  child. 
Under  the  old  sermonic  form  scores  of  healthy  congrega- 
tions had  languished  and  died;  deacons  had  dropped  into 
syncope,  and  treasurers  had  been  found  again  and  again 
with  both  hands  in  a  state  of  catalepsy.  The  triangular 
division  of  the  intellectual  universe  had  thus  been  most 
ruinous  in  its  effects,  and  the  church  sighed  for  a  variation 
of  the  geometrical  form.  No  doubt  great  boldness  was  re- 
quired to  beard  the  tyranny  of  traditionalism;  the  man  who 
profanely  declared  that  any  text  could  be  viewed  in  four 
aspects,  and  discussedwithout  a  single  subdivision,  would 
have  been  in  peril  of  an  attack  from  the  very  men  who  had 
been  sighing  for  a  change  :  what  then  would  be  thought 
of  the  adventurous  young  minister  at  Stockwell  who  be- 
gan his  new  magazine  with  '^  A  Homily  on  the  Wants  oj 
the  World,  and  the  Weakness  of  the  Church,''  and  concluded 
the  first  number  with  '^  Healthful  Eays  of  Genius ''  from 
Plato,  and  Garlyle  ?  What  could  be  thought  of  such  a  man 
but  that  he  was  dying  of  some  heretical  pest,  and  corrupt- 
ing the  morals  of  the  rising  ministry  ?  Elderly  ministers 
bought  the  magazine  as  it  were  under  protest,  on  the 
principle  of  the  pious  Quaker  who  went  to  the  races  "just 
to  see  if  any  of  our  people  were  there  f'  college  professors 
slily  hid  it  in  their  desks,  and  peeped  at  it  stealthily  while 
the  students  were  (mistakenly)  supposed  to  be  absorbed  in 
gerund-grinding, — yes,  quite  mistakenly,  for  the  students 
themselves  had  put  their  pence  together,  after  the  fashion 
of  a  copper  round  robin,  so  that  no  one  could  tell  who 
began  it,  and  procured  a  copy  of  the  dangerous  magazine, 
which  they  read  with  most  immoral  avidity.  '^  Tliat  was 
the   sort  of  thing,"*^  they  impetuously  declared,  without 

G  2 


84        Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  tt  Young  Preacher. 

waiting  for  tlie  soberer  judgment  of  tlie  college  committee 
or  of  a  sub-committee  appointed  to  "  report  on  the  whole 
case/^  and  fortbwitli  every  man  of  tbem  tlirew  his  tri- 
angular "  skeletons  "  into  the  fire,  and  began  the  higher 
geometry.  The  awakening  churches  said  they  were 
startled ;  the  elder  orthodoxy  was  'pamed ;  and  the  men 
who  had  comfortably  slept  for  years  through  "  first  the 
fact  stated,  second  the  doctrine  implied,  and  third  the 
lessons  which  may  be  inferred/^  adopted  a  tone  which 
in  general  terms  may  be  described  as  threatening.  This 
resentment  was  neither  unaccountable  nor  unpardonable  : 
it  was  not  unaccountable,  for  masculine  pewholders  like  to 
know  that  their  own  sentiments  are  being  promulgated 
from  the  pulpit  in  the  very  words  which  they  have  used  to 
their  wives  and  children  ^'  many  and  many  a  time  -/'  it  is 
both  comfortable  and  complimentary,  as  well  as  indicative 
of  theological  stability  :  in  the  next  place,  the  resentment 
was  not  altogether  unpardonable,  for  sentimental  pew- 
holders who  have  shed  rivers  of  tears  over  the  tender  words, 
'■''How  doth  the  little  busy  bee,"  and  ''^Twinkle,  twinkle, 
little  star,"  naturally  shudder  at  the  paganism  of  "in- 
stinctive beliefs,"  '^  moral  intuitions,"  and  '"''  the  empirical 
conscience."  Such  shuddering  is  in  no  wise  to  be  won- 
dered at ;  it  is  the  protest  of  outraged  nature  against  all 
new  ideas  and  novel  words,  and  on  that  account  is  to  be 
highly  esteemed. 

In  issuing  the  second  volume  of  the  HomiUst,  the  editor 
felt  '^  it  due  to  those  who  take  this  volume  in  their  hand 
with  the  intent  to  purchase,  to  declare  some  of  its  omis- 
sions, that  there  may  be  none  of  the  regret  of  disappoint- 
mentafter  the  bargain."  The  "  omissions"  are  thus  stated : 
"  First — the  book  has  no  finish;  secondly — the  book  has 


Tlie  Homilist :  Man  and  Booh.  85 

no  denominationalism  ;  thii'dly — the  book  has  no  polemical 
theology."  The  statement  is  not  properly  qualified.  As 
a  rule  the  opening  homily  of  each  number  has  ^'  finish/' 
it  is  elaborate^  continuous,  and  complete ;  as  to  the 
second  omission,  it  is  generally  safe  to  infer  that  when 
any  man  disclaims  denominationalism  he  is  about  to  con- 
stitute himself  into  a  denomination,  or  else  he  has  degene- 
rated into  the  malevolent  sectarianism  of  no  sect;  the 
third  omission  is  stated  pretty  accurately,  though  the  book 
is  by  no  means  without  a  controversial  tone  :  the  catholic 
editor  does  not  agree  with  everybody ;  he  can  adopt  an 
attitude  either  defensive  or  defiant,  though  as  a  general 
rule  he  is  peacefully  disposed  towards  those  who  let  him 
alone.  David  Thomas  is  a  lover  of  peace  ;  he  would  knock 
a  man  down  for  peace;  he  would  go  to  war  for  peace;  no 
wonder,  therefore,  he  avoids  ''  polemical  theology .'''  It 
is  a  singular  fact  that  the  man  who  has  written  so  many 
new  sermons  has  never  written  a  new  preface !  Year 
by  year  he  has  said,  "  As  the  old  key-note  will  still  rule 
the  melodies  of  the  Eomilist,  and  no  new  specific  descrip- 
tion is  requisite,  the  preface  may  be  again  transcribed.'^ 
I  draw  your  attention  to  this  circumstance,  that  I  may 
candidly  point  out  that  David  Thomas's  homiletic  method 
is  decidedly  wanting  in  variety.  It  is  perfectly  true  that 
one  preface  will  do  for  ever.  First  of  all,  the  text  is  made 
to  yield  a  subject,  thus:  take  the  text,  "  That  which  hath 
been  is  now  "  (Eccles.  iii.  16),  and  the  sidjject  is, ''  The  im- 
potency  of  time,  or  the  eternally  permanent  amidst  the 
constantly  fluctuating  ;"  or  the  text,  "  Then  he  which  had 
received  the  one  talent  came,'^  etc.  (Matt.  xxv.  24), 
and  the  subject  is,  ^'  The  non-use  of  power  in  the  feeblest  " : 
this  is  David  Thomas's  method  with  every  text ;  he  does 


86         Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

not  seem  able  to  move  until  he  has  wrought  it  into  a  wide 
generalisation,,  and  in  the  great  majority  of  instances 
the  generalisation  is  not  only  wide  but  legitimate  and 
profound.  Not  only  is  the  text  itself  a  subject^  but  each 
head^  even  of  the  most  severely  analytic  division^  is  also  a 
theme;  as  an  illustration  take  the  main  outline  of  the 
subject;,  ''  The  trial -bearing  Force  of  Spiritual  Eeligion  •/' 
I.  Spiritual  religion  engages  the  supreme  attention  of  the 
soul  under  trial ;  II.  Spiritual  religion  recognises  God's 
superintendence  under  trial;  III.  Spiritual  religion  iden- 
tifies man's  will  with  God's  under  trial.  Or  take  the  main 
outline  of  the  subject,  "  The  Pool  of  Siloam,  or  the  world 
in  miniature"  (John  v.  1-9):  I.  The  human  world  is  greatly 
afilicted;  II.  The  human  world  has  alleviating  elements; 
III.  The  human  world  is  preeminently  selfish ;  IV.  The 
human  world  has  a  glorious  Deliverer.  So  unvarying  is 
the  substance  of  his  method  that  any  careful  reader  of  one 
volume  of  his  homilies  may  almost  infallibly  predict  how 
David  Thomas  would  discuss  any  text.  His  homiletic 
mannerism  is  unchangeably  fixed.  He  never  surprises 
readers  who  have  familiarised  themselves  with  his  style, 
by  sudden  variation  of  method^  unexpected  adventures  of 
fancy,  or  whimsical  adaptations  of  architecture;  everywhere 
you  find  order,  logic,  and  proportion ;  he  is  never  so  borne 
away  by  his  first  thought  as  to  forget  his  second ;  when 
he  begins  his  journey  allhis  appointments  are  complete,  and 
when  he  returns  he  has  accomplished  his  whole  purpose. 
The  man  of  whom  this  can  be  justly  said  must  have  un- 
usual self-control,  and,  according  to  his  capacity,  must 
have  completeness  and  equality  of  mental  power.  Still, 
this  rigid  regularity  does  become  monotonous  ;  mile  after 
mile  of  unchanging  architecture,  however  massive  and 


Tlie  Homilist:  Man  and  Booh.  87 

stately,  wearies  tlie  eye,  and  from  this  continuity  of 
formal  excellence  the  constant  reader  of  the  Somilist 
undoubtedly  suffers.  He  cannot  but  wish  that  a  few  texts 
at  least  should  escape  the  suspicion  of  being  cunning 
riddles  to  which  David  Thomas  alone  can  suggest  happy 
answers ;  he  gets  tired  of  the  boundless  stretch  of  small 
capitals  and  emphatic  italics^  and  almost  sighs  for  a  little 
change  in  the  treatment  of  subjects.  David  Thomas  deals 
largely  in  "  germs/^  but  the  germs  are  nearly  all  of  one 
sort ;  it  may  be  very  depraved  moral  horticulture  on  my 
part^  but  I  should  certainly  like  to  see  a  few  deciduous 
plants  among  the  evergreens,  and  even  the  evergreens 
themselves  might  be  selected  with  a  view  to  a  vivid  and 
effective  interspersion  of  colouring ; — why  not  mix  the 
peach-coloured  flowers  of  the  almond  with  the  splendid 
golden  alder  or  the  purple-leaved  Darwinii  ?  Why  not 
alternate  the  cypress  with  the  cistus  ?  Why  this  "  bound- 
less contiguity ''  of  cedar  ? 

Variety  is  quite  as  much  wanted  in  the  language  as  in 
the  ^planning  of  the  Homilist.  As  a  general  rule,  the 
language  of  the  Homilist  is  specially  clear  and  strong  : 
yet  its  range  is  limited;  it  is  local  rather  than  cosmo- 
politan, certainly  not  rich  in  allusion,  and  seldom  equal 
to  the  thinking  which  it  is  intended  to  express.  We 
rarely  get  any  idea  of  the  author^  s  reading  from  the 
variety  of  his  language;  we  do  not  find  from  the 
gorgeousness  of  one  homily  that  the  writer  began  it  after 
a  long  spell  at  Burhe,  nor  from  the  riotous  impetuosity  of 
another  that  it  was  written  under  the  inspiration  of 
Macaulaij  ;  we  never  exclaim,  "  here  is  the  quaintness  of 
Trapp,  the  splendour  of  Hall,  the  sublimity  of  Charnock, 
the  delicacy  of  Taylor  -/'  we  feel,  and  feel  deeply,  that 


88        Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

tlie  book  wliicli  the  writer  knows  most  about  is  tlie  last 
volume  of  tlie  Homilist  itself !  We  do  not  want  quotation 
but  inspiration^ — not  garlands  and  cliaplets_,  but  perfumes 
gathered  from  many  gardens,  tlie  aroma  of  tlie  world^s 
genius.  We  deprecate  tlie  absurd  criticism  wliicli 
censures  one  man  because  lie  is  not  another;  but  we 
admire  the  universality  of  mind  which  can  never  be 
satisfied  with  its  own  resources,  but  must  with  self- 
misgiving  and  most  emulous  determination  intermeddle 
with  all  wisdom.  It  may  be  said,  If  Burke  has  a  style  of 
his  own,  and  Macaulay,  Shakspeare,  and  Scott,  and  each 
of  the  other  immortal  writers  of  English,  why  not  David 
Thomas  ?  There  is  no  reason  why  David  Thomas  should 
not  have  his  own  style,  nor  is  there  any  reason  why  he 
should  not  be  continually  enriching  and  refining  his 
style  j  moreover,  his  is  not  so  much  a  style  as  a  mere 
hahit  ;  in  a  literary  point  of  view  it  has  more  form  than 
life ;  provided  the  words  will  barely  cover  his  idea,  he 
cares  nothing  for  their  efflorescence  and  colouring.  This 
is  not  altogether  to  be  admired.  The  careful  wiiter  will 
sometimes  pause  before  electing  either  of  two  synonyms; 
he  will  look  at  the  fine  shading,  he  will  study  the  balance 
and  cadence  of  the  syllables,  that  his  thought  may  have 
all  the  advantage  of  perfect  rhythm  :  the  i^reaclier  too 
will  ^^seek  out  acceptable  words,^^  remembering  that 
even  in  his  sacred  office  there  are  many  opportunities  of 
profiting  by  the  canon  : 

*'  True  wit  is  nature  to  advantage  dressed, — 
What  oft  was  thought,  but  ne'er  so  well  expressed." 

In  a  standing  notice,  prefixed  to  every  monthly  copy,  the 
editor  of  the  Homilist  says,  '''We  want  things  not  words  :'' 


The  Homilist :  Man  and  Booh.  89 

the  notice  is  bold,  but  is  it  discriminating  ?  Is  it  not 
true  tliat  in  some  cases  words  are  things  ?  Is  it  not 
also  true  that  there  is  adaptation  between  thought  and 
language,  as  between  the  king  and  his  chariot  ?  "  There 
would  seem  at  first  sight  to  be  no  more  in  Milton^s 
words  than  in  other  words.  But  they  are  words  of 
enchantment.  No  sooner  are  they  pronounced,  than  the 
past  is  present  and  the  distant  near.  New  forms  of 
beauty  start  at  once  into  existence,  and  all  the  burial 
places  of  the  memory  give  up  their  dead.  Change  the 
structure  of  the  sentence  :  substitute  one  synonym  for 
another,  and  the  whole  effect  is  destroyed.^-'*  Perhaps 
in  penning  this  notice  the  sagacious  editor  was  preparing 
friends  among  the  critics  of  unrighteousness,  that  in  the 
day  of  his  exposure  they  might  receive  him  into  their 
houses ;  or  perhaps  he  admired  the  conciseness  without 
thinking  of  the  justness  of  his  notice. 

This  you  will  regard  as  a  candid  criticism,  not  I  trust 
the  less  valuable  because  of  its  discrimination ;  David 
Thomas  has  done  a  great  work,  and  if  there  be  a  fault  or 
a  flaw  in  it  here  and  there  who  can  wonder  ?  We  must 
not  forget  that  if  he  were  to  review  our  work  he  might 
be  able  to  show  that  there  is  more  in  it  to  censure  than 
to  admire ;  it  should  therefore  be  under  a  sense  of  our 
own  imperfection  that  we  offer  an  opinion  upon  the 
capabilities  and  services  of  another  man.  The  name  of 
David  Thomas  will  increase  in  honour  and  influence,  in 
proportion  as  the  ministry  increases  in  intelligence  and 
vigour ;  and  long  after  his  noble  countenance  has  ceased 
to   brighten    our    assemblies,   his   noble    thoughts   will 

*  Macaulay. 


90        Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  F readier. 

stimulate  our  minds :  there  may  liave  been  a  little 
envious  mist  thrown  about  bis  earlier  course,,  but  there  is 
before  his  name  an  honoured  and  a  splendid  future. 

"When  first  the  sun  too  powerful  beams  displays, 
It  draws  up  vapours  which  obscure  its  rays ; 
But  even  those  clouds  at  last  adorn  its  way, 
Eeflect  new  glories  and  augment  the  day." 

In  my  opinion  the  time  for  the  completion  of  the  Homilist 
has  fully  come  ;  it  may  now  with  advantage  coalesce  with 
the  Pulpit  Analyst, — giving  it  the  prestige  of  a  unique 
history,  and  leaving  it  to  supply  some  omissions  which 
mark  the  service  even  of  the  strongest  minds. 

From  all  this  you  will  correctly  infer  that  I  advise  you 
to  procure  the  entire  set  of  the  Homilist,  now  extending 
I  suppose  to  something  like  twenty  volumes.  This  ad- 
vice I  do  tender  with  most  cordial  urgency,  under  the 
assured  conviction  that  no  young  minister  can  study  its 
method  without  gaining  very  much  both  in  stimulus  and 
instruction. 

Since  writing  this  critique  I  have  seen  David  Thomas, 
after  a  lapse  of  nearly  ten  years.  Some  changes  have 
taken  place  in  his  appearance ;  time  has  just  begun  to 
set  its  mark  upon  him,  and  whilst  the  old  contagious 
buoyancy  still  abounds  there  is  a  tenderer  mellowness 
in  many  of  his  observations  upon  men  and  things.  He 
is  still  sermonising,  and  is  still  justly  proud  of  his 
Homilist ;  with  the  simplicity  of  a  little  child  he  boldly 
declares  that  it  is  as  good  as  ever ;  and  if  for  a  moment 
you  doubt  it  he  is  prepared  to  give  half-a-dozen  of  its 
latest  outlines  which  undoubtedly  prove  that  his  right 
hand  has  not  forgotten  its  cunning.  Life  and  peace  be 
to  him  in  exceeding  measure  ! 


VII. 
TEXTUAL  DIVISIONS. 

It  may  be  convenient  now,  considering  tliat  you  are 
expecting  shortly  to  take  your  place  on  the  college 
preachers^  list,  to  give  some  attention  to  the  various 
methods  of  treating  texts^  a  subject  which  has  occasioned 
much  diversity  of  opinion,  and  on  which  no  man  can  give 
a  final  judgment.  All  I  can  hope  to  do  is  to  cite  a  few 
examples,  and  to  point  out  where,  according  to  my  own 
ministerial  experience,  they  appear  either  to  succeed  or 
fail  in  giving  the  most  effective  expression  to  the  truth  of 
the  text.  In  approaching  this  work  allow  me  to  put  you 
on  your  guard  against  the  temptation  to  make  what  are 
called  clever  sermons.  The  temptation  appeals  very 
powerfully  to  the  youthful  mind;  there  is  much  plausi- 
bility in  it ;  it  stimulates  genius  ;  it  calls  up  individuality 
of  thought  j  it  takes  a  man  off  the  common  ground,  and 
gives  him  a  standing  place  of  his  own ; — all  these  con- 
siderations will  present  themselves,  and  if  you  be  taken 
unawares  they  will  vitiate  and  debase  your  ministry.  The 
young  preacher  often  looks  for  strange  texts,  and  having 
announced  them,  gazes  upon  his  congregation  with  an 
expression  which  signifies,  "  There  !  What  could  you,  or 
what  could  any  man  but  myself,  make  of  a  text  like  that? 
Now  let  me  show  you  how  clever  I  am  !  '^  You  cannot 
tell  how  deeply  your  thoughtful  hearers  will  be  grieved 


92         Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclter. 

by  sucli  eccentricity :  it  may  please  the  idle-minded  and 
the  vain,  but  it  will  distress  all  who  come  to  worship  God 
and  receive  His  word  at  your  lips.  Have  you  any  ser- 
mons upon  particularly  striking  texts  ?  Take  a  friend's 
advice  to  put  them  into  the  fire.  Don't  think  I  am  cruel; 
the  advice  is  really  kind^  and  you  will  probably  thank  me 
for  it  in  less  than  ten  years ;  let  all  such  sermons  go  into 
the  fire  at  once^  the  loss  will  be  a  gain,  the  sacrifice  will 
be  made  up  to  you  if  you  off'er  it  with  a  good  motive.  As 
a  servant  of  God,  a  chosen  messenger  of  Jesus  Christ, 
you  have  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  detached  expres- 
sions, broken  sentences,  and  perverted  accommodations  ; 
your  business  is  with  the  whole  revealed  counsel  of  God, 
and  you  should  give  yourself  day  and  night  to  its  prayer- 
ful and  anxious  study.  This  is  your  wealth  and  strength 
as  a  Christian  minister.  The  Bible  is  not  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  mere  repository  of  texts  collected  for  profes- 
sional convenience ;  it  is  the  word  of  God,  with  a  mean- 
ing and  a  purpose  which  you  must  earnestly  seek  to 
understand.  We  shall  often  be  at  a  loss  what  to  say  to 
our  people  if  we  draw  only  upon  our  own  resources ; 
Saturday  will  find  us  empty-handed,  Sunday  will  be  a  day 
of  painful  bondage,  and  Monday  an  occasion  of  heartless 
joy.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in 
us  richly  in  all  wisdom  (Col.  iii.  16),  if  we  can  say  with 
Jeremiah  (xv.  16),  "Thy  words  were  found,  and  I  did  eat 
them,  and  Thy  word  was  unto  me  the  joy  and  rejoicing  of 
mine  heart,""  if  we  can  say  with  Job  (xxiii.  12),  ^'I  have 
esteemed  the  words  of  His  mouth  more  than  my  necessary 
food,'^  we  shall  never  be  at  a  loss  for  messages  both  in- 
structive and  comforting.  The  Holy  Spirit  will  magnify 
His  own  word ;  He  will  make  His  statutes  the  songs  of 


Textual  Divisions.  93 

His  people  in  the  house  of  their  pilgrimage  (Ps.  cxix.  54), 
and  clothe  His  ministers  with  the  garments  of  zeal.  You 
will  see  then  that  I  am  more  anxious  about  your  know- 
ledge of  the  Bible  as  a  whole^  than  about  particular  texts 
and  skilful  methods  of  division.  Think  what  a  weapon 
God  has  put  into  the  hands  of  His  servants  !  '^  The  word 
of  God  is  quick  and  powerful,  and  sharper  than  any  two- 
edged  sword,  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of 
soul  and  spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a 
discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart  '^  (Heb. 
iv.  12).  What  more  do  you  require  ?  Don^t  spend  your 
time  in  extracting  mere  particles  of  steel  from  this  great 
wea^Don;  let  every  text  be  a  handle  by  which  you  lift  the 
whole  instrument  for  the  working  out  of  a  particular  end. 
Don^t  regard  your  text  as  complete  in  itself;  it  is  only 
one  of  a  series ;  carefully  collate  the  whole  class,  and 
bring,  not  the  text  only,  but  the  entire  truth  which  it  re- 
presents to  bear  upon  the  mind  and  heart  of  your  hearers. 
You  cannot  do  this  without  patient  study  of  the  word  ; 
but  it  is  by  such  patience  that  men  become  mighty  in  the 
Scriptures  and  rich  in  heavenly  wisdom.  As  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  recur  to  this  subject  in  another  connection, 
we  may  proceed  to  the  secondary  matter  of  texts  and  their 
division. 

You  have  selected  a  text, — now  what  is  your  first  busi- 
ness ?  Not  how  to  divide  it ;  not  to  consider  what  par- 
ticular purpose  it  may  be  strained  to  serve ;  not  how  to 
exercise  your  ingenuity  upon  it ;  but  to  find  out  its  exact 
critical  and  doctrinal  meaning.  Does  it  contain  any  words 
of  doubtful  etymology  ?  Have  any  of  the  words  ever  been 
used  in  different  senses  ?  What  is  the  bearing  of  all  the 
parallel  passages  ?  What  is  the  meaning  which  the  Divine 


94         Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

Spirit  intended  tlie  words  to  convey  ?  You  must  be  clear 
upon  all  these  points  before  you  think  of  division  or 
elaboration;  first  have  the  truth,  and  then  set  about  its 
treatment.  Having  got  the  truth  into  the  mind^  next 
get  it  into  the  heart ;  pray  for  a  deeper  and  tenderer  love ; 
beseech  God  to  stimulate  your  affection  for  the  truth,  to 
make  it  your  own  by  happy  experience,  to  shed  its  light 
over  your  whole  life,  and  to  bring  you  altogether  under 
its  influence ;  in  this  way  God  will  cause  His  truth  to  be- 
come as  it  were  part  of  your  very  being,  and  when  you 
preach  it  there  shall  be  evidence  that  instead  of  merely 
repeating  a  lesson  you  are  speaking  from  a  believing  and 
thankful  heart.  So  long  as  the  text  is  only  an  external 
object  your  discourse  will  be  artificial  and  powerless ; 
when  it  becomes  a  living  reality  in  your  own  spiritual  ex- 
perience it  will  come  to  your  hearers  with  simplicity  and 
effect.  Let  it  be  understood  then,  that  in  offering  an 
opinion  about  homiletic  outlines  I  take  for  granted  that 
we  are  agreed  up  to  this  point ;  we  must  be  at  one  about 
the  foundation  before  we  discuss  the  best  methods  of 
scaffolding ;  enjoying  and  loving  the  truth,  you  wish  to 
know  how  to  preach  it  most  clearly  and  usefully  :  on  this 
basis  let  us  talk  together  freely  and  at  large. 

Some  divisions  are  mere  commonplaces,  others  are 
distinct  propositions,  and  others  again  are  cumulative 
and  logical.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  any  one  of 
these  is  best ;  each  has  its  advantages  and  its  drawbacks. 
It  is  remarkable  that  Mr.  Eobertson's  divisions  are 
generally  very  tame,  giving  no  idea  whatever  of  the  rich 
suggestiveness  of  his  teaching.  Take  his  sermon  upon 
the  faith  of  the  centurion  (Matt.  viii.  10) ;  his  main 
divisions  are — I.  The  faith  which  was  commended,  and 


Textual  Divisions.  95 

II.  The  causes  of  tlie  commendation.  Probably  tbe 
poorest  preacber  in  tbe  world  could  not  have  conceived  a 
less  promising  outline^  yet  tbe  sermon  is  instructive  and 
patbetic.  Again^  in  bis  sermon  on  The  early  Develop- 
ment of  Jesus  (Luke  ii.  40)  be  gives  as  bis  plan — "  In 
tbe  text  we  read  of  a  tbreefold  growtb  (i.)  In  strengtb, 
(ii.)  In  wisdom,  (iii.)  In  grace  ;^^  a  less  original  plan  never 
introduced  any  sermon_,  yet  tbe  discourse  is  by  no  means 
wanting  in  novelty  or  fresbness.  In  a  discourse  upon  an 
incident  in  tbe  life  of  Elijah  (1  Kings  xix.  4)  be  gives  as 
bis  division — (i.)  Tbe  causes  of  Elijah^ s  despondency,  and 
(ii.)  God's  treatment  of  it.  Wbo  could  make  anytliing 
out  of  sucb  a  plan  ?  Apparently  Mr.  Robertson  set 
little  by  tbe  formal  division;  tbe  merest  bint  was  enough. 
This  method  of  division  has  been  common  in  all  minis- 
tries, irrespective  of  denominational  training.  In  a  sermon 
on  Religious  Meditation  (Gen.  xxiv.  63)  Richard  Watson, 
the  distinguished  Methodist  preacher,  gives  as  bis  outline 
— (i.)  The  greatness  of  its  objects,  and  (ii.)  Its  moral 
advantages.  In  an  eloquent  sermon  upon  Excitements  to 
Missionary  Effort  (Eccles.  xi.  1-6)  he  has  a  very  ordinary 
outline  :  (i.)  A  large  and  liberal  benevolence  is  enjoined 
upon  us ;  (ii.)  Some  interesting  motives  to  the  exercise 
of  benevolence  are  here  set  before  us ;  (iii.)  Several 
objections  are  implied  in  the  text ;  (iv.)  We  have  some 
reasons  for  diligence  and  constancy.  Another  distin- 
guished Methodist  preacher,  Dr.  Beaumont,  was  often  as 
inexpressive  in  his  method  of  division ;  for  example,  on 
The  more  excellent  Sacrifice  (Heb.  xi.  4)  be  says, — "  In 
bringing  before  you  tbe  character  of  Abel  our  attention 
is  required  to  tbe  following  considerations  :  (i.)  He  is  tbe 
first  of  whom  it  was  affirmed  that  he  was  justified  by 


96        Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Treacher. 

faith ;  (ii.)  He  was  the  first  of  whom  it  was  stated  that 
he  offered  an  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God ;  (iii.)  He  was 
the  first  personal  type  of  Christ;  (iv.)  He  was  the 
first  martyr  for  the  truth;  (v.)  He  was  the  first 
whose  redeemed  spirit  entered  heaven.  Again_,  in  his 
sermon  on  the  Joyful  tidings  hy  Angelic  Messengers  he 
says  : — "  (i.)  Let  us  consider  the  matter  of  the  tidings 
brought  by  the  angel  unto  the  shepherds ;  (ii.)  The 
quality  by  which  these  tidings  are  characterized;  (iii.) 
The  extent  of  application  to  which  they  are  destined/^ 
In  a  sermon  on  The  Lamb  of  God  (John  i.  36)  Dr. 
Guthrie  has  this  outline  :  (i.)  Behold  Christ  before  He 
came  to  this  world;  (ii.)  Behold  Christ  on  earth_,  in  His 
humiliation ;  (iii.)  Let  this  Lamb  of  God  be  the  supreme 
Object  of  our  desires,,  and  the  sole  Object  of  our  faith. 
On  The  Christian's  Faith  (Matt.  xv.  2^  the  same  eloquent 
preacher  has  this  plan  :  (i.)  Her  earnestness  is  an 
example,  as  her  success  in  an  encouragement  to  us;  (ii.) 
Observe  the  trials  to  which  Christ  put  her  earnestness 
and  faith.  William  Jay,  of  Bath,  had  the  reputation  of 
being  a  skilful  divider  of  texts ;  some  of  his  divisions  are 
very  commonplace ;  in  his  sermon  on  The  Gosjyel  Jubilee 
(Lev.  XXV.  10)  he  merely  says,  "Let  me  explain  the 
nature  of  the  jubilee — make  some  remarks  upon  the 
design  of  it — and  examine  what  there  is  in  the  gospel  to 
correspond  with  it.^^  These  may  be  taken  as  examples 
of  the  commonplace  method,  and  for  the  emment  men 
who  adopted  it  no  doubt  it  was  sufiicient,  their  gift  lay 
rather  in  elaboration  than  in  analysis;  if  you  have  their 
genius  you  may  adopt  their  plan,  but  if  not  you  will  do 
well  to  seek  a  more  excellent  way.  I  venture  to  think 
that  the  following  outline,  given  to  me  by  a  friend  who 


Textual  Divisions.  97 

brings  a  rare  analytic  power  to  his  pulpit  prepai^tion,  is 
mucli  superior  to  any  yet  quoted.  The  text  is  Exodus 
iii.  14  :  we  have  here  (i.)  TJie  chief  inquiry  of  man  as  a 
responsible  agent, — who  sends  me  ?  what  is  His  name  ? 
what  account  shall  I  give  of  myself?  (ii.)  Tlie  highest 
revelation  to  man  as  a  speculative  thinTcer,^Grod's  name, 
^'1  AM;'^  not  atheism,  for  God  Himself  speaks;  not 
pantheism,  for  Grod^s  personality  is  declared;  not  mere 
deism,  for  God  descends  to  take  an  immediate  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  men.  (m.)  The  highest  authority  of  man  as 
a  moral  worher, — I  AM  hath  sent  me,  I  am  QocVs  servant, 
this  is  inspiration,  this  is  power.  Another  friend  has 
favoured  me  with  a  striking  outline  upon  Job  xiv.  10 : 
'^^  man  dieth,  and  wasteth  away ;  yea,  man  giveth  up  the 
ghost,  and  where  is  he  ?  "  (i.)  If  he  was  a  good  man  he 
is  where  he  has  long  desired  to  be ;  (ii.)  If  he  was  a  good 
man  he  is  where  he  wSiS prepared  to  be;  (iii.)  If  he  was 
a  good  man  he  is  where  he  will  for  ever  desire  to  remain. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  he  was  a  bad  man,  then  (i.)  He  is 
where  he  never  really  desired  to  be;  (ii.)  where  he  was 
prepared  to  be  ;  (in.)  where  he  can  never  wish  to  remain. 
This  is  a  very  happy  method  of  division;  but  its  treatment 
requires  great  care,  because  there  is  a  strong  temptation 
to  study  the  form  rather  than  the  truth,  and  thus  to 
degenerate  into  mere  cleverness.  The  same  skilful  friend 
has  a  sermon  upon  1  Peter  v.  7,  *'  casting  all  your  care 
upon  Him,  for  He  careth  for  you,^^  in  which  he  figures 
every  man  as  a  traveller  carrying  three  bundles  :  (i.)  the 
past;  (ii.)  the  present;  (iii.)  the  future.  The  preacher 
takes  down  the  three  bundles,  and  examines,  them;  the  / 
first  is  full  of  sins,  unhappy  memories,,  neglected  duties,  \ 
etc.;  the  second  is  full  of  the  troubles  of  daily  life,  the  \ 


98         Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

deceitfulness  of  riclies^  worldly  engagements^  etc. ;  tlie 
tliird  is  full  of  fears,  anxieties,  apprehensions,  etc.  The 
preacher  then  exhorts  his  supposed  traveller  to  cast  all 
these  cares  upon  Divine  strength.  The  method  of  division 
by  distinct  propositions  embodying  the  spirit  of  the 
narrative  is  instructive,  and  not  difficult  either  of  con- 
struction or  remembrance ;  as  an  illustration  take  the 
narrative  of  the  journey  of  Abram  given  in  the  12th 
chapter  of  Genesis,  and  regard  it  as  setting  forth  the 
journey  of  a  good  man  through  life  :  we  may  then  affirm 
that  in  his  journey  through  life  the  good  man  (i.)  rever- 
ently listens  to  the  Divine  voice ;  (it.)  reposes  implicit 
faith  in  the  sovereignty  and  fatherhood  of  God;  (iii.) 
maintains  his  faith  by  continual  worship;  (iv.)  often 
finds  his  blessings  associated  with  trials ;  and  (v.)  some- 
times feels  that  his  faith  is  tried  more  severely 
by  the  less  than  by  the  greater  ajffairs  of  life.  This 
method  is  illustrated  in  a  sermon  by  Dr.  McAll  on 
'^the  nature  and  causes  of  that  joy  with  which  the 
good  man  hails  the  return  of  every  season  wherein 
it  is  his  privilege  to  approach  to  the  house  of  God,  and 
to  mingle  in  the  engagements  of  the  sanctuary.''^  (i.) 
There  he  is  warranted  to  expect  the  peculiar  enjoyment 
of  the  Divine  presence,  (ii.)  The  gratification  thus  ex- 
pressed on  approaching  to  the  house  of  God  springs  also 
from  the  happiness  of  a  near  and  intimate  association 
with  our  brethren  in  all  the  exercises  of  united  devotion, 
(ill.)  The  truly  pious  man  will  delight  in  approaching  to 
the  house  of  the  Lord,  because  of  those  sacred  and  solemn 
employments,  so  congenial  with  his  best  feelings,  there 
awaiting  him.  (iv.)  Because  of  the  progressive  improve- 
ment in  all  our  character  there  constantly  experienced 


Textual  Divisions.  09 

I  need  hardly  point  out  the  wordiness  of  these  divisions, 
except  to  put  you  on  your  guard  against  it.     Be  concise. 
Try  how  many  words  you  can  remove  without  obscuring 
the  sense  which  you  intend  to  convey.     Take  a  single 
sentence  from  Dr.  McAlPs  sermon,  and  see  how  many  ot 
the  words  you  can  safely  take  away  : — '^  We  have  learned 
from  Scripture,  and  rejoice  in  the  noble  sentiment,  that 
heaven,  even  the  heaven  of  heavens,  cannot  contain  Him : 
that  is,  perhaps,  that  if  we  should  ascend  through  the  nearer 
and  more  limited  regions  of  existence  from  this  speck  of 
earth  into  those  that  rise  in  magnificence  above,  vast  as 
they  are,  and  ever  widening  on  the  view ;    if  we  should 
pass  through  the  heavens  that  we  behold  studded  with 
stars,  and  gleaming  with  all  the  brightness  of  the  firma- 
ment, into  the  loftier  and  more  ethereal  realms  beyond 
them,  soaring  still,  and  still  stretching  forward  on  the 
wing  to  others  yet  more  distant  and  more  exalted,  which 
are  the  heavens  to  them,  encircling  them  within  their 
glowing  sphere,  beaming  forth  on  them,  as  these  on  us, 
the   splendours   of  the  Deity; — and  if,  still  untired,  we 
should  mount  to  the  third  heavens,  those  fields  of  magni- 
ficence and  glory  which  are  yet  undiscovered  and  un- 
known,  and    wherein   there  shines   no  light  of  sun  or 
star,  no  other  radiancy  but  the  pure  emanations  of  the 
Godhead  :  even  then  should  we  not  have  arrived  at  an 
expanse  sufficiently  capacious  to  include  and  shut  within 
itself  the  illimitable  fulness  of  His  being.-"     There  is  a 
defiant   challenge  to  your  pruning  knife !     What  long 
words,  what  ambition,  what  panting  haste,  what  redund- 
ant expression,  what  useless   speculation  !      Dr.   McAU 
says  that  the  third  heavens  ^^  are  yet  undiscovered  and 
unknown,^'  yet  he  speaks  of  them  as  if  he  had  seen  them; 

h2 


100        Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

howj  if  they  are  undiscovered,  he  knows  tliat  there  is 
neither  sun  nor  stars  in  them^  and  how,  if  they  are  un- 
Jcnown,  he  has  come  by  the  intelligence  that  they  have 
''  no  other  radiancy  but  the  pure  emanations  of  the  God- 
head/^ are  points  which  we  cannot  determine;  yet  we 
can  fancy  how  a  carriage-keeping  congregation  would  be 
thrown  into  ecstasies  by  this  ^^  ascending/^  ''  soaring/' 
'^stretching/'  '^ mounting"  sentence,  and  how  dizzy  it 
would  become  when  standing  in  '^  undiscovered  and  un- 
known fields  of  magnificence  and  glory/'  Yet  Dr.  McAll 
could  write  short  glittering  sentences,  and  express  himself 
with  childlike  simplicity.  Imitate  his  conciseness,  his 
refinement,  his  courage ;  but  beware  of  his  ascents  to  the 
third  heavens  !  For  a  grander  specimen  of  the  same 
kind  of  verbiage  take  the  following  magnificently  finished 
balloon  passage  from  the  writings  of  Dr.  Chalmers  ; — 

"  Or  if,  instead  of  viewing  the  Deity  in  relation  to  time,  we  view 
Him  in  relation  to  space,  we  shall  feel  the  mystery  of  His  being 
to  be  alike  impracticable  and  impervious.  But  we  shall  not  again 
venture  on  aught  so  inconceivable,  (yet  the  reality  of  which  so 
isrresistibly  obtrudes  itself  upon  the  mind,)  as  immensity  without 
limits ;  nor  shall  we  presume  one  conjecture  on  a  question  which 
we  have  no  means  of  resolving,  whether  the  universe  have  its  ter- 
minating outskirts,  and  so,  however  stupendous  to  our  eye,  shrink 
by  its  finitude  to  an  atom,  in  the  midst  of  that  unoccupied  and 
unpeopled  vastness  by  which  it  is  surrounded.  Let  us  satisfy  our- 
selves with  a  humbler  flight.  Let  us  carry  the  speculation  no 
farther  than  our  senses  have  carried  it.  Let  us  take  account  only 
of  the  suns  and  systems  which  the  telescope  has  unfolded  ;  though 
for  aught  we  know,  beyond  the  farthest  range  of  this  instrument 
there  might  be  myriads  of  remoter  suns  and  remoter  systems.  Let 
us  however  keep  within  the  circle  of  our  actual  discoveries — 
within  the  hmits  of  that  scene  which  we  know  to  be  peopled  with 
realities ;  and,  instead  of  trying  to  dilate  our  imagination  to  the 


Textual  Divisions.  101 

infinity  beyond  it,  let  us  but  think  of  God  as  sitting  in  state  and 
high  sovereignty  over  millions  of  other  worlds  beside  our  own.  If 
this  earth  which  we  know,  and  know  so  imperfectly,  form  so  small 
a  part  of  His  works,  what  an  emphasis  it  gives  to  the  lesson  that 
we  indeed  know  but  a  very  small  part  of  His  ways.  '  These  are  a 
part  of  His  ways,'  said  a  holy  man  of  old ;  *  but  how  little  a  portion 
is  heard  of  Him  ! '  Here  the  revelations  of  astronomy,  in  our 
modem  day,  accord  with  the  direct  spiritual  revelations  of  a  former 
age.  In  this  sentiment  at  least  the  patriarch  and  philosopher 
are  at  one;  and  highest  science  meets  and  is  in  harmony  with 
deepest  sacred/ness.  Hence  we  construct  the  same  lesson,  whether 
we  employ  the  element  of  space  or  the  element  of  ti^ne.  With  the 
one  the  basis  of  the  argument  is  the  ephemeral  experience  of  our 
little  day ;  with  the  other  the  basis  of  the  argument  is  the  con- 
tracted observation  of  our  little  sphere.  They  both  alike  serve  to 
distance  man  from  the  infinite  and  everlasting  God." 

Dr.  Chalmers  too  could  write  short  and  pregnant  sen- 
tences, though  he  was  more  at  home  in  mounting  his 
aerial  car  and  joining  McAll  in  a  hazardous  trip  to  the 
third  heavens.  In  writing  this_,  it  occurs  to  me  to  sug- 
gest that  it  may  be  well  for  you  to  send  me  a  sermon  for 
criticism ;  do  so,  pray,  and  give  me  permission  to  speak 
freely  about  it, — don^t  be  offended  by  a  sharp  word,  it 
shall  be  spoken  in  honest  love.     I  await  your  reply. 


IX. 

HAEEIS  AND  BEECHER. 

Are  you  suffering  from  tlie  effects  of  tlie  last  letter  ?  If 
so,  probably  you  would  be  glad  to  have  an  opportunity 
of  returning  tbe  compliment  ■wbicli  I  bave  taken  such 
pains  to  pay  you.  No  doubt  you  have  instinctively  turned 
to  your  sword^  because  you  have  felt  an  abhorrent  sense 
of  a  heartlessness  and  injustice  which  have  baffled  and 
defied  your  power  of  expression.  You  call  me  hyper- 
critical ;  you  see  where  I  am  wrong ;  you  protest  that  I 
have  misunderstood  your  meaning — in  a  word  you  regard 
yourself  as  an  injured  man.  Do  you  ?  Do  you  take  my 
remarks  good-humouredly_,  or  do  you  burn  with  an  in- 
dignant desire  to  lay  hands  upon  a  sermon  of  my  own? 
By-and-by  you  shall  have  a  chance  of  repayment;  but  not 
to-day — to-day  you  are  in  a  dangerous  mood.  Let  us  take 
a  turn  upon  common  ground,  until  your  good  temper  is 
quite  recovered. 

You  are  too  young  to  have  known  Dr.  Harris,  who 
was  not  in  my  opinion,  according  to  a  statement  in  a 
former  letter,  a  preacherj  but  a  most  pleasant  and  per- 
suasive reader  of  sermons.  I  propose  to  quote  the  outline 
of  an  eloquent  sermon  of  his  upon  Christ  Weeping  over 
Jerusalem.  ^'  And  when  He  was  come  near.  He  beheld 
the  city,  and  wept  over  it,  saying.  If  thou  hadst  known, 
even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  which 


Harris  and  Beecher.  103 

belong  unto  tliy  peace !  but  now  they  are  bid  from  tbine 
eyes"  (Luke  xix.  41,  42).  Speaking  of  tbe  Saviour  as 
presented  in  tbis  text,  Dr.  Harris  says  : — 

"1.  His  comprebensive  mind  reverted  to  tbe  ^ast ; 
He  remembered  tbe  days  of  old,  wben  Israel  was  boliness 
to  tbe  Lord.''  I  tbink  it  is  a  mistake,  in  taste  to  say  tbe 
least,  to  speak  of  Jesus  Cbrist's  '' comj)rehensive  mind;'' 
if  tbe  epitbet,  wbicb  is  complimentary  ratber  tban  reve- 
rential, bad  been  omitted  tba  sentence  would  bave  been 
purer  and  stronger. 

"  2.  Witb  tbe  self-denying  love  of  a.  patriot  and  tbe 
grace  of  a  Saviour,  He  looked  beyond  tbe  spectacle  of 
His  oivn  sufferings,  and  fixed  His  eye  upon  tbeirs — He 
could  look  at  tbem  only  tbrougb  tbe  atmospbere  of 
compassion.''  Tbis  too  seems  to  me  to  be  pitifully 
complimentary.  If  tbe  first  tbirteen  words  bad  been 
omitted  tbe  sentence  would  bave  gained  mucb. 

'^3.  Tbe  exclamation,  regarded  as  a  sentence,  was 
broken  and  incomplete ;  but  wbo  does  not  see  tbat  it  is 
in  effect  eloquently  completed  by  tbe  tears  wbicb  break 
it — tears  wbicb  are  tbe  natural  language  of  compassion, 
and  wbicb  express  its  intenseness  beyond  all  words  ?"  I 
cannot  see  wby  tbis  sbould  bave  been  given  as  a  separate 
bead,  tbougb  it  is  legitimate  as  a  general  remark.  Homi- 
letically,  it  is  certainly  not  scientific ;  tbis  is  not  unim- 
portant to  a  student. 

^^  From  tbis  amplification  and  general  interpretation  of 
tbe  text,  let  us  proceed  next  to  consider  its  particular 
bearing  on  ourselves."  I  sbould  bave  liked  a  less  formal 
transition ;  a  curve  would  bave  been  better  tban  a  rigbt 
angle. 

'^1.  There  are  things  xvhich  jpre-eminently  belong  to  your 


104      Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

peace.  2.  The  period  allotted  to  you  for  attending  to 
them  is  definite  and  brief— it  is  here  called  ^your  day.' 
3.  Should  your  day  of  opportunity  close^  and  leave  you 
unsaved^  your  guilt  will  be  great  and  your  condition 
remediless.  4.  This  is  a  spectacle  calling  for  the  pro- 
foundest  lamentation.  6.  Behold  in  the  tears  of  Jesus  a 
proof  of  His  unextinguished  compassion  for  them_,  and  an 
inducement  to  apply  to  Him  at  once  far  salvation.-'^  The 
chief  merit  of  these  points  is  that  nothing  can  be  said 
against  them^  if  indeed  an  exception  may  not  be  made 
as  to  the  use  of  the  word  '^  you  "  instead  of  "  us/'  A 
preacher  should  be  careful  how  he  separates  himself  from 
his  hearers  j  by  identifying  his  own  spiritual  condition 
with  theirs  he  disarms  criticism  and  conciliates  con- 
fidence^ but  by  too  marked  a  separation  he  exposes  him- 
self to  the  charge  of  priestliness  and  professional  sancti- 
mony. The  whole  sermon  of  which  the  outline  is  now 
before  you  is  undoubtedly  written  with  spirit^  there  is 
no  want  of  pleading  terms  or  urgent  expostulation ;  yet 
to  my  mind  it  is  singularly  inefi'ective,  and  it  is  so 
principally  because  of  the  impression  that  it  is  manufac^ 
tured,  the  pathos  seems  to  have  been  got  up  for  the 
occasion  and  to  have  been  adapted  to  the  requirements 
of  artificial  propriety;  the  appeal  is  entirely  artistic, 
measured  to  order,  and  overshadowed  by  the  imagined 
presence  of  the  printer ;  while  the  very  marks  of  ex- 
clamation carry  with  them  a  terrified  look  as  if  they  had 
just  seen  a  critic.  I  miss  the  freedom,  the  elasticity,  and 
the  sympathy  of  nature;  I  cannot  shed  tears  even  when 
the  preacher  delicately  intimates  that  such  a  sign  of 
emotion  would  be  timely  and  becoming;  I  cannot  tremble 
with  mortal  fear  when  the  preacher  tells  me  to  ^'  reflect^ 


Harris  and  Beecher.  105 

tJdrdly/^  tliafc  tlie  day  of  visitation  is  hastening  to  a  close; 
no,  no,  I  cannot  '''reflect  thirdly  ;"  the  preaclier  should 
have  constrained  me  to  reflect  by  his  gentle,  sympathetic, 
earnest  pourtrayal  of  the  Saviour's  sorrow,  and  if  his  own 
grief  had  interrupted  his  smooth  and  rhythmic  eloquence 
T  might  have  caught  the  infection  of  his  tears.  Away 
with  this  trimly  cut  pathos' !  if  not  to  be  condemned  as 
blasphemy,  it  is  to  be  abhorred  as  simulation, — it  looks 
like  mere  stock  in  trade  which  the  sermon-writer  keeps 
in  his  inkhorn  for  business  purposes. 

Lying  before  me  is  a  sermon  on  the  same  text,  by 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  a  greater  contrast  it  is  im- 
possible to  find ;  Beecher's  sermon  is  full  of  life,  spon- 
taneity, and  tender  vigour  j  you  feel  throughout  that  the 
preacher  derives  his  power  over  you  from  a  deep  ac- 
quaintance with  the  human  heart  and  a  rich  experience 
of  Christian  truth  in  his  own  soul ;  he  talks  to  you,  not  at 
you  ;  there  is  nothing  artificial,  every  sentence  is  natural; 
the  preacher  seeks  your  salvation,  and  stands  as  if  he 
would  not  go  away  until  you  receive  the  Saviour.  Start- 
ing with  the  inquiry  ''What  is  a  Divine  visitation?"  he 
prosecutes  an  analysis  of  the  influences  which  operate  upon 
human  life,  showing  at  how  many  points  God  attempts  to 
reach  the  sinner's  soul.  "  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  only  technically  religious  institutions  and  truths  are 
Grod's  instruments,  and  that  the  world  is  abandoned  of 
good  unless  there  are  technically  religious  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  it.  It  is  an  error  to  regard  the 
world  as  a  vast  labyrinth  of  evil,  in  which  religion  alone 
is  recuperative.  For  I  understand  that  the  whole  system 
of  the  world,  from  the  outside  shell  to  the  inside  core  and 
seed,  from  the  centre  back  to  the  remotest  circumference. 


106      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  PreacJier, 

is  part  and  parcel  of  one  great  attempt  of  God  for  the 
development  of  the  human  race ;  that  the  revelation  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  although  it  is  transcend ently 
higher  in  its  kind,  is  not  more  a  part  of  religious  culture 
than  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  natural  world,  in  social 
life,  in  business,  in  all  the  appointments  in  which  man 
acts  or  in  which  he  is  acted  upon.  All  these  constitute, 
it  is  true,  only  subordinate  parts,  but  nevertheless  real 
and  integral  parts,  of  that  general  course  of  education 
and  development  which  God  superintends  in  this  world. 
So  that  if  a  man  had  never  seen  a  church,  or  never  read 
a  Bible,  it  could  not  be  said  that  he  was  undeveloped  or 
uneducated.  He  would  be  destitute  of  the  best  part  of 
the  educating  system ;  nevertheless  he  would  not  have 
escaped  out  of  the  great,  spacious  academy  of  education 
which  this  world  affords,  until  he  had  escaped  out  of  life 
itself  !^^  Around  this  proposition  he  gathers  arguments 
and  analogies  most  pressing  and  apposite ;  then  come 
parables,  figures,  as  true  as  they  are  ingenious  and 
beautiful.  "  If/'  says  the  preacher,  '^  you  look  compre- 
hensively, it  may  be  said  that  the  human  soul  lies  in  the 
body  like  the  keys  of  a  great  organ,  and  that  the  great 
Organist  has  not  left  a  single  key  untouched  in  the  whole 
seven  octaves ; — touched,  not  once  or  twice,  but  many 
times;  not  in  single  melodies,  but  in  the  most  massive 
harmonies ;  so  that  every  person  trained  in  a  Christian 
family,  brought  up  under  Christian  institutions,  in 
Christian  communities,  in  the  midst  of  Christian  visita- 
tions, has  been  the  subject  of  special  influences  on  every 
single  one  of  his  faculties  from  the  top  of  the  scale  all 
the  way  down  to  the  bottom.-'^  Referring  to  the  changeful 
experiences  of  the  soul  in  regard  to  Divine  visitations. 


Harris  and  Beecher.  107 

Mr.  Beecher  gives  tlie  following  simple  but  effective 
illustration : — 

'^  I  suppose  every  man  passes,  at  some  time,  into  a  kind 
of  scepticism.  I  know  I  have  had  such  times ;  I  suppose 
everybody  bas  tbem.  At  my  former  mountain  bome  in 
Lenox  tbere  were  days  in  August,  wben,  altbougb  I  knew 
tbere  were  mountains  near,  tbey  were  so  bazy  tbat  I  could 
not  see  tbem.  I  looked  to  tbe  nortb,  wbere  old  Greylock 
stood,  and  be  bad  gone.  I  looked  to  tbe  soutb  for  Mount 
Wasbington,  and  be  bad  gone.  I  looked  to  tbe  east  for 
tbe  range  of  mountains  tbat  rose  up  tbere,  but  tbey  bad 
stolen  away.  I  looked  to  tbe  west  to  see  if  any  remained, 
but  tbey  too  bad  bid  tbemselves,  and  all  were  invisible. 
But  wben  I  slept  and  woke,  all  tbe  mountains  tbe  next 
morning,  wasbed  by  nigbt  sbowers,  came  back,  so  clear 
and  distinct  tbat  tbe  old  crag  upon  tbe  ten-mile  distant 
bill  stood  up,  vivid  as  a  line  against  tbe  sky,  and  my  eye 
could  sweep  over  all  tbe  country  round  about,  and  tbe 
truant  bills  seemed  to  bave  travelled  bome  again  stealtbily 
in  tbe  nigbt.  I  tbink  it  is  just  so  in  tbe  soul.  Tbere 
are  times  wben  a  man  goes  grieving,  saying,  '  Wbere  are 
tbose  aspirations  wbicb  I  once  felt  ?  I  am  now  sodded 
and  stupid  as  a  sponge.  Wbere  are  tbose  up-reacbings 
tbat  I  once  enjoyed  ?  Wbere  is  all  tbat  old  enthusiasm 
of  honour  ?  Where  are  all  those  mountings  of  desire  ? 
Ah  !  they  are  all  gone  !  Man  is  after  all  but  a  superior 
animal ;  he  is  but  a  part  of  tbe  material  creation ;  be  is 
but  tbe  highest  form  in  which  matter  develops/  Man 
complains  to  himself,  *  I  shall  live,  and,  like  an  autumnal 
leaf,  wither  and  die;  something  else  shall  grow  out  of  me, 
and  in  turn  something  else  shall  grow  out  of  that.' 

'^  But  though  there  are,  in  every  man^s  life,  times  of 


1 08      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Treacher. 

obscuration,  of  dulness,  of  deadness,  that  come  over  the 
soul,  there  is  no  man  so  bad,  so  worldly,  so  obstinately  set 
in  bis  philosophic  errors,  so  bound  up  in  unbeliefs,  that  he 
has  not  certain  other  brighter  and  revelatory  moments,  in 
which  he  rises  superior  to  his  common  life,  in  which  his 
immortal  nature  mounts  mountain-like  above  him,  in 
which  he  stands  upon  the  tops  of  his  own  soul,  and, 
looking  out,  exclaims  :  '  I  born  to  fall  like  a  sparrow 
and  rot  ?  I  grow  like  a  vegetable  that  goes  back  again 
into  the  earth  ?  Never  !  This  that  is  in  me,  so  royally, 
shall  live  and  mount  far  above  the  touch  of  decay  !  *  He 
feels  his  affinity  to  God  !  He  is,  in  his  own  conscious- 
ness, near  heaven  j  and  there  is  a  throb  of  immortality 
in  his  soul !  ^' 

Again,  what  natural  and  charming  talk  is  this : — 
"  It  is  remarkable,  in  respect  to  these  visitations  of  God, 
that  they  do  not  follow  the  telescope;  they  are  rather  like 
comets,  that  come  when  they  please  ;  for  when  you  search 
for  God,  *"  by  searching  you  cannot  find  Him  out/  Often, 
when  I  have  tried  to  prepare  a  sermon,  and  have  ranged 
the  heavens  for  higher  conceptions  of  God,  I  could  not 
find  them ;  but  at  other  times  I  have  been  walking  along 
the  street,  never  dreaming  or  thinking  of  God,  when, 
coming  in  contact  with  some  of  my  fellow-men,  I  would 
see  some  suggestive  trait  fall  out  among  them,  and  all  at 
once,  from  that  little  incidental  circumstance,  there  would 
spring  up  such  a  luminous  development  of  the  Divine 
character  that  I  have  said  to  myself,  '  Oh,  if  I  could  only 
have  such  a  thought  as  that  in  the  pulpit  I  could  then 
preach  the  truth  of  God  ! '  But  it  came  when  I  was  out 
in  the  street,  and  where  nobody  would  hear.  I  could  only 
fill  my  own  soul  with  it  for  a  moment,  and  pass  on,  till  it 


Harris  and  Beeclier.  109 

gradually  faded  away.  Such  thouglits  have  come  to  you 
unbidden,  sometimes  in  your  counting-room,  or  when  you 
were  on  a  journey,  or  on  the  sea;,  sometimes  when  you 
have  been  in  your  house  all  alone,  your  family  in  the 
country ;  sometimes  in  trouble  and  adversity  ;  in  various 
ways, — often  coming,  though  never  twice  alike,  as  if  the 
Divine  phases  had  sought  to  present,  at  different  times, 
different  aspects  to  you.  And  if,  all  the  way  along,  you 
had  treasured  up  these  times — precious  times  of  great 
treasure  !  if  you  had  treasured  them  as  you  have  when 
you  have  made  a  good  bargain,  or  gained  a  new  honour ; 
if  you  had  treasured  all  these  interior  peculiarities  as  you 
have  the  exterior,  you  would  find  them  I  think  almost 
within  speaking  distance  all  the  way  from  childhood  to 
manhood ;  and,  although  you  had  never  such  a  consecutive 
view  of  the  whole,  yet  really  all  along  you  have  been 
subject  to  such  impressions  !  And  they  have  come  again 
and  again,  from  childhood  clear  down  to  manhood.  There 
is  not  a  man  in  this  congregation  that  has  not  been  dealt 
with  in  that  way !  You  do  not  know  yom^self  I  You 
have  been  the  subject  of  culture  when  you  did  not  know 
it !  You  were  unconscious  of  it,  because  it  was  silent 
and  modest,  because  it  did  not  report  itself  like  a 
bell ! '' 

This  is  preaching  !  When  a  preacher  descends  after 
this  manner  into  the  common  experiences  of  life  his 
dullest  hearer  cannot  escape  his  stimulating  influence ;  he 
widens  his  pulpit  until  it  includes  the  whole  world,  and 
simplifies  his  theology  until  little  children  even  catch  the 
meaning  of  Grod's  living  word.  Apart  from  the  richness 
and  beauty  of  these  quotations,  does  anything  strike  you 
as  remarkable  ?   It  certainly  strikes  me  that  the  preacher 


110      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

conld  not  have  read  such  passages;  there  is  a  freeness 
about  the  sentences  which  could  hardly  be  attained  by  a 
writer ;  there  is^  if  you  will  pardon  a  whimsical  expres- 
sion, an  air  of  s])olienness  about  these  urgent  and  spark- 
ling utterances,  Harris's  sermon  is  an  essay,  Beecher's 
is  a  speech ;  Harris  reads  at  you,  Beecher  speaJcs  to  you ; 
Harris  is  an  artist,  Beecher  is  an  orator ;  Harris  conducts 
you  into  a  conservatoire  of  artificial  flowers,  Beecher 
leads  you  into  a  garden  where  all  is  life  and  bloom  and 
fragrance.  Most  heartily  do  I  commend  Mr.  Beecher's 
sermons  as  the  best  models  of  pulpit  addresses  with 
which  I  am  acquainted ;  they  are  full  of  matter ;  they 
are  instructively  and  popularly  philosophical,  without 
being  distractingly  metaphysical;  they  abound  in  allusions 
to  common  life  and  the  universal  experience  of  mankind; 
they  are  rich  with  illustrations  drawn  from  all  quarters ; 
they  are  conceived  in  the  very  spirit  of  the  gospel  and 
expressed  with  a  pathetic  sympathy  which  is  often  most 
subduing  and  persuasive.  I  have  reason  to  speak  grate- 
fully of  Mr.  Beecher ;  his  words,  so  natural,  so  human, 
yet  so  divine,  have  stimulated  and  blessed  me  when  the 
refined  analysis  of  Bushnell,  the  vehement  eloquence  of 
Chalmers,  the  waxen  beauty  of  Harris,  and  the  perspira- 
tional  rhetoric  of  Melville  were  unsuited  to  my  spiritual 
condition.  Mr.  Beecher's  outlines  are  seldom  striking; 
in  fact  he  does  not  as  a  rule  care  for  a  formal  mapping  of 
his  subject ;  his  mind  and  his  heart  are  full  of  it,  and  this 
dictates  his  utterance.  He  has  been  accused  of  occasional 
extravagance,  and  not  without  reason ;  but  such  extra- 
vagance is  the  result  of  exuberant  life,  and  is  in  my 
opinion  much  to  be  preferred  to  the  tame  propriety 
which  is  the  chief  characteristic  of  many  sermons.     Mr. 


Harris  and  Beecher.  Ill 

Beeclier's  extravagance  appears  to  me  to  be  only  sucli 
extravagance  as  may  be  found  in  nature ;  the  carved 
cabinet  may  be  exact  in  its  proportions  and  convenient 
in  its  design,  yet  it  should  not  be  cited  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  the  irregular  but  living  tree.  Homiletics  has 
become  too  much  of  a  cabinet-carving  art ;  the  square 
and  compass  have  been  too  much  in  requisition;  it  is 
quite  time  that  we  should  follow  a  little  more  closely  the 
logic  of  life  and  the  poetry  of  nature.  Mr.  Beecher  does 
this  in  a  remarkable  degree,  and  is  therefore  an  example 
to  all  young  ministers  whose  aim  it  is  to  preach  with 
simplicity  and  effect.  I  wish  my  space  would  allow  me 
to  present  another  contrast  which  Mr.  Beecher  offers  to 
Dr.  Harris  in  a  sermon  upon  Rom.  i.  16.  The  sermon 
by  Dr.  Harris  on  this  text  contains  many  fine  sentences 
and  a  good  deal  of  careful  painting ;  it  is  evidently  the 
result  of  the  minutest  painstaking,  and  undoubtedly  it 
reflects  great  credit  upon  Dr.  Harris  as  a  devout  and 
contemplative  essayist.  I  heard  Dr.  Harris  preach  the 
sermon  in  1852  at  the  opening  of  a  chapel  in  the  suburbs 
of  London,  and  my  recollection  of  the  preacher^s  placid 
yet  animated  countenance,  his  sweet  and  tuneful  voice,  his 
grave  and  impressive  manner,  is  very  pleasant ;  his  sermon 
was  an  admirable  essay  admirably  delivered.  In  a  literary 
point  of  view  Mr.  Beecher^s  discourse  is  inferior  to  Dr, 
Harris's,  but  as  an  address  delivered  to  a  miscellaneous 
assembly  it  is,  in  my  judgment,  much  superior  to  it.  Its 
argusment  is  close,  its  illustrations  are  vivid,  and  its  appeal 
(as  indeed  is  Dr.  Harris's)  very  practical.  Mr.  Beecher 
in  this  instance,  as  in  the  former,  has  the  obvious  advan- 
tage of  sjpeaking  ;  when  will  all  ministers  avail  themselves 
of  that  advantage  ?     You  see  how  easily  I  am  brought 


112      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

again  to  this  point,  it  is  because  I  attacli  to  it  an  import- 
ance whicli  cannot  be  exaggerated.  Again  and  again, 
hoping  that  importunity  will  not  be  thrown  away  upon 
you,  I  urge  you  to  be  a  preacher  and  not  a  mere  reader  of 
the  gospel.     Be  resolute,  and  you  will  surely  succeed  ! 

''  Gret  the  substance  of  your  sermon,  which  you  have 
prepared  for  the  pulpit,  so  wrought  into  your  head  and 
heart,  by  review  and  meditation,  that  you  may  have  it  at 
command  and  speak  to  your  hearers  with  freedom;  not 
as  if  you  were  reading  or  repeating  your  lesson  to  them, 
but  as  a  man  sent  to  teach  and  persuade  them  to  faith  and 
holiness.  Deliver  your  discourses  to  the  people  like  a  man 
that  is  talking  to  them  in  good  earnest  about  their  most 
important  concerns  and  their  everlasting  welfare ;  like  a 
messenger  sent  from  heaven,  who  would  fain  save  sinners 
from  hell  and  allure  souls  to  God  and  happiness.  Do  not 
indulge  that  lazy  way  of  reading  over  your  prepared 
paper  as  a  schoolboy  does  an  oration  out  of  Livy  or 
Cicero,  who  has  no  concern  in  the  things  he  speaks ;  but 
let  all  the  warmest  zeal  for  God  and  compassion  for 
perishing  men  animate  your  voice  and  countenance ;  and 
let  the  people  see  and  feel,  as  well  as  hear>  that  you  are 
speaking  to  them  about  things  of  infinite  moment,  and  in 
which  your  own  eternal  interest  lies  as  well  as  theirs.''^ — 
(Dr.  Isaac  Watts.)  This  is  the  counsel  of  true  wisdom.- 
I  grant  that  it  is  counsel  which  at  first  involves  most 
serious  difficulty  to  thoughtful  and  diffident  preachers. 
There  is  a  natural  anxiety  about  the  proper  construction 
of  sentences,  the  distribution  of  parts,  and  the  unity  of 
the  whole  discourse ;  and  this  anxiety  is  not  favourable  to 
the  determined  self-possession  which  is  essential  to 
effective  public  speaking.     The  young  speaker  (I  do  not 


Harris  and  BeecJier.  113 

mean  tlie  flippant  gabbler)  soon  falls  under  tlie  tyranny 
of  fear;  lie  is  nervous  about  tlie  next  sentence,  lie  is 
alarmed  by  the  most  trifling  grammatical  slip,  and  any 
unexpected  circumstance  distresses  and  enfeebles  bim. 
Yet  tbis  is  only  one  side  of  the  account ;  on  the  otber 
must  be  put  down  the  growth  of  power  and  its  consequent 
ease,  the  development  of  sympathy  with  the  varying 
conditions  and  moods  of  a  congregation,  and  a  happy 
independence  of  many  possibilities  which  are  the  terror 
of  artificial  speakers.  There  is  no  finer  sight  than  that 
of  a  great  teacher  addressing  an  assembly  with  a  power 
self-conscious  enough  to  secure  perfect  ease,  yet  self- 
misgiving  enough  to  invest  the  speaker  with  the  holy 
and  tender  charm  of  devout  reliance  upon  a  strength  that 
is  not  his  own.  Does  not  such  a  sight  enkindle  your 
best  ambition  ?  The  way  indeed  into  this  kingdom  is 
narrow,  and  the  gate  is  strait ;  but  do  not  be  discouraged 
on  that  account,  for  it  is  true  of  all  kingdoms  that  are 
worth  entering  :  you  cannot  have  a  broad  way  and  a  wide 
gate  into  any  of  God's  kingdoms  :  the  devil  makes  wide 
paths  for  his  followers,  otherwise  he  could  never  lure 
them  into  darkness ;  but  Grod  always  sets  the  severity  of 
discipline  before  the  reward  of  glory. 


IX. 

THE   MINISTER  IN  THE   PULPIT. 

Michael  Angelo  is  reported  to  have  said^  "  trifles  ma"ke 
perfectioii_,  and  perfection  is  no  trifle/^  Under  tlie 
patronage  of  tliis  MgH  antliority  you  will  permit  me  to 
take  note  of  sundry  little  things  in  connection  with  tlie 
Mglier  matters  with  wMcli  it  is  now  proposed  to  engage 
your  attention.  Nothing  should  be  despised  which  con- 
tributes to  the  increase  of  legitimate  influence^  and  nothing 
indulged  which  aids  merely  artificial  effect.  Everything 
connected  with  the  ministry  should  at  least  be  real.  Now 
for  particulars  : — 

1.  You  have  to  go  into  the  ^ul^pit.  You  smile  at  this 
trite  remark  perhaps ;  there  are  however  two  ways  of 
going  into  a  pulpit.  To  ascend  the  pulpit  with  a  hurried 
step,  or  with  any  air  of  affectation,  is  indecorous  if  not 
profane.  Some  ministers  have  an  extraordinary  way  of 
rolling  into  the  pulpit ;  others  are  severely  perpendicular 
in  their  attitude ;  others  are  natural  and  solemn,  without 
being  either  flippant  or  sanctimonious  in  their  manner. 
Some  ministers  make  their  appearance  at  the  vestry  door 
with  a  bold  and  almost  defiant  look,  others  drop  their 
eyes  as  if  ashamed  to  hold  up  their  heads ;  in  both  cases 
perhaps  there  is  a  little  affectation :  what  you  and  I  have 
to  do  is  to  be  natural,  sincere,  and  modest.  ^ 

2.  You  have  to  announce  hymns  and  chapters.     Why 


The  Mimster  in  the  Pulpit.  115 

announce  them^  unless  you  wisli  tlie  congregation  to  follow 
you  ?  But  liow  can  the  congregation  follow  you^  if  you 
announce  tlie  numbers  in  a  low  or  mumbling  tone  ?  or 
if  you  don't  announce  tliem  at  all,  but  simply  gabble 
them  ?  or  if  you  give  out  the  five-hundred-and-seventy- 
sixth  hymn  and  three-hundred-and-fifty-first  hymn  in 
the  supplement,  and  get  half  way  into  the  first  verse, 
before  you  take  your  breath  ?  For  my  own  part  I  confess 
to  a  difficulty  in  giving  out  numbers,  arising  from  the 
change  of  voice  which  should  often  be  made  from  the  tone 
in  which  it  is  proper  to  announce  the  number  to  the  tone 
appropriate  to  the  sentiment  of  the  hymn ;  for  example, 
in  a  large  place  of  worship  it  may  be  necessary  to  say  '^  five 
hundred  and  ninety-five^''  very  loudly,  but  it  might  be 
shocking  to  say  as  loudly,  "  Alas  !  and  did  my  Saviour 
bleed  j ''  a  subdued  tremulous  tone  best  becomes  the 
utterance  of  such  words  :  on  the  other  hand,  the  peal  of  a 
trumpet  would  be  fitting  for  the  line,  '^  Praise  ye  the 
Lord,  'tis  good  to  raise/'  I  have  found *the  best  plan  of 
overcoming  this  difficulty  to  be  to  pause  for  two  or  three 
seconds  after  announcing  numbers ;  this  plan  has  advan- 
tages for  the  hearer  as  well  as  for  the  speaker.  In 
announcing  hymns  and  chapters  you  should  be  very 
careful  to  distribute  the  emphasis  properly,  or  your  efi'ort 
will  be  a  failure.  In  announcing,  for  instance,  that  you 
are  about  to  read  the  second  chapter  of  the  first  epistle  of 
John,  beginning  at  the  tenth  verse,  great  care  is  required : 
some  persons  (into  whose  secret  may  you  never  come  !) 
would  announce  it  thus — "  Let  us  read  from  the  tenth 
verse  of  the  second  chapter  of  John's  first  epistle/' 
others,  quite  as  bad,-  or  perhaps  even  a  shade  worse, 
would  say^^^  Second  CHAPTER  of  the  first  EPISTLE 

I  2 


116       Ad  CJenim  :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

of  Jolin,  BEGINNING  at  tlie  tenth  VERSE :"  wliat  a 
horrible  perversion  of  plain  common  sense  !  Tlie  people 
do  not  wish  to  know  that  it  is  a  chapter,  bnt  what  par- 
ticular chapter  it  is  ;  they  do  not  require  so  much  to  know 
that  you  are  about  to  read  from  an  epistle,  as  they  require 
to  know  ivhose  epistle  it  is.  If  I  can  represent  emphasis 
by  a  variety  of  type  I  will  show  you  how,  in  my  opinion, 
the  announcement  should  be  made  :  ^'  The  FIRST  epistle 
of  JOHN,— the  SECOND  chapter,— beginning  at  the 
TENTH  verse."  Say  this  ticice  distinctly,  and  after  a 
momentary  pause  proceed.  While  giving  oat  numbers 
don^t  hold  down  your  head  as  if  giving  them  out  to  the 
book,  but  speak  straightforwardly  as  if  you  meant  to  be 
heard. 

3.  You  have  to  unite  in  the  offering  of  ivorship.  How  can 
you  do  so  if  you  fumble  in  the  Bible,  spread  out  your 
manuscript,  and  make  sundry  arrangements  which  ought 
to  have  been  made  before  you  went  into  the  pulpit  ? 
Have  you  no  part  in  the  song  of  praise  ?  Are  you  a  paid 
conductor,  or  a  fellow-worshipper  ?  In  my  opinion  the 
minister  should  enter  heartily  into  the  service  of  song,  for 
even  if  he  cannot  sing  he  can  show  by  a  reverent  manner 
that  his  heart  is  engaged  in  Divine  praise,  he  can  sing 
with  the  spirit  and  with  the  understanding. 

4.  You  Jiave  to  read  the  Scriptures.  Few  men  read  them 
intelligently  and  expressively.  Some  ministers  read  the 
Bible  in  a  tame  and  deadening  tone,  as  if  they  had  mis- 
taken insipidity  for  veneration;  others  read  it  with  a 
theatrical  rant  which  is  shockingly  impious;  others 
again  read  it  in  a  slovenly  manner,  as  if  the  exercise  was 
hardly  worth  attending  to,  in  comparison,  as  Mr.  Binney 
truly  says,  with  ^'  their  grand  intellectual  sermon.'^  What 


The  Minister  m  the  Pulpit.  1 1  7 

is  the  remedy  ?  We  must,  first  of  all,  feel  that  the  word 
of  God  itself  is  actually  before  us,  and  our  elocution  will 
then  be  dictated  by  our  veneration.  In  the  next  place 
we  must  by  private  study  prepare  ourselves  for  the  public 
reading  of  the  Scriptures.  I  doubt  whether  it  is  not  pro- 
fane to  read  in  the  pulpit  a  chapter  ta  which  no  attention 
has  been  paid  in  private.  How  can  the  adventurer  who 
does  so  know  anything  of  the  sentiment  of  the  chapter  ? 
How  can  he  remember  the  punctuation  ?  How  can  he  be 
prepared  for  change  of  subject,  or  for  parenthetic  modifi- 
cation ?  He  cannot  read  the  chapter;  he  can  only  pro- 
nounce the  words,  and  flounder  through  the  meaning. 
The  indispensable  requisite  for  good  reading  is  an  intelli- 
gent and  sympathetic  conception  of  the  author^s  meaning ; 
I  say  not  only  intelligent  but  sympathetic,  because  appre- 
ciation always  suggests  the  best  expression.  It  is  said  of 
a  celebrated  novelist,  who  occasionally  reads  his  own 
compositions  in  public,  that  in  anticipation  of  ^a^  public 
reading  he  will  spend  not  less  than  six  hours  a-day  in 
studying  the  most  appropriate  accent,  cadence,  and  force; 
if  he  does  this  for  a  corruptible  crown  what  shall  lye  do 
for  a  crown  that  is  incorruptible  ?  Surely  we  should  at 
least  read  over  in  secret  the  portion  of  Scripture  which  we 
intend  to  read  in  public.  "Whether  the  public  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  should  be  intermixed  with  explanatory 
remarks  is  still  a  controverted  question :  Mr.  Binney 
objects  to  a  running  commentary  '^^as  spoiling  the  force 
of  the  simple  reading  by  a  crowd  of  trite  commonplaces,'' 
and  no  doubt  the  objection  can  be  sustained  by  many 
confirmatory  illustrations ;  on  the  other  hand,  some  minis- 
ters have  a  very  happy  way  of  interposing  an  explanatory 
word :    looking  at  both  sides  of  the   question  I  should 


118       Ad  Cleriim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Freaclier. 

strongly  advise  that  at  least  one  portion  be  read  without 
comment,  and  that  the  minister  feel  himself  at  liberty 
to  read  another  with  such  interspersions  of  his  own  as 
may  in  his  opinion  elucidate  its  meaning.  A  universal 
rule  cannot  be  laid  down ;  each  man  must  work  according 
to  his  gift ;  where  a  man  cannot  express  himself  tersely  he 
ought  not  to  attempt  an  intermixture  of  reading  and  com- 
ment ;  if  he  should  be  infatuated  enough  to  do  so  the 
inspired  word  will  soon  be  lost  in  the  uninspired 
garrulity. 

5.  You  have  to  ]pray.  If  few  nien_,  even  ministers,  know 
how  to  read,  fewer  still,  it  would  unhappily  appear,  know 
how  to  pray.  I  liave  known  ministers  of  great  reputation 
for  pulpit  eloquence,  whose  prayers  were  simply  discredit- 
able. The  ministers  in  question  have  stumbled,  and 
often  done  so  incoherently,  through  a  set  of  the  merest 
commonplaces ;  they  have  seemed  to  be  doing  a  work 
which  was  quite  strange  to  them,  and  consequently  to 
be  ill  at  ease.  The  'poverty  of  their  prayers  was  lament- 
able; take  out  the  "O  Lords,^^  and  the  "We  beseech 
Thee,  0  heavenly  Fathers,''  and  what  would  be  left?  In 
the  confession  of  sin  the  sins  have  been  enumerated  as  if 
they  were  only  mistakes ;  and  in  the  supplication  for 
pardon  forgiveness  has  been  asked  for  as  if  it  cost  God's 
heart  nothing  and  was  quite  a  matter  of  indifference, 
thoug-h  common  courtesy  required  that  some  notice  should 
be  taken  of  it.  Who  can  doubt  that  preparation  is  as 
needful  for  prayer  as  for  preaching  ?  "  The  preparation 
of  the  heart  in  man,  and  the  answer  of  the  tongue^  is  from 
the  Lord.-"  That  some  men  have  what  may  be  called 
the  gift  of  prayer  in  larger  measure  than  others  is  evi- 
lent ,  and  that    consequently  it  is  easier  for  some  men  to 


The  Minister  in  the  Falint.  119 

23ray  tlian  others  is  indisputable;  yet  preparation  will 
secure  great  advantage  to  the  least  gifted.  But  lioio  to 
prepare  ?  Is  it  by  writing  ?  Is  it  by  committing  to 
memory  ?  No.  First  of  all,  read  the  devotional  portions 
of  the  Bible  largely ;  in  addition  to  this  exercise,  read  the 
devotional  writings  of  the  most  spiritual  divines ;  and 
thirdly,  make  earnest  and  unsparing  inquest  into  your 
own  heart :  to  this  end  be  much  alone ;  don^t  live  in 
excitement;  pray  God  to  ^^ search  you  with  candles'*^ 
(Zeph.  i.  12),  and  to  reveal  you  to  yourself.  After  such 
preparation  you  will,  so  to  speak,  pray  from  a  spiritual 
and  not  an  external  centre ;  your  prayer  will  be  dictated 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  not  merely  suggested  by  circum- 
stances; you  will  be  inspired  rather  than  instructed; 
you  will  descend  upon  the  wants  of  life  with  heavenly 
strength, — not  struggle  towards  them  in  earthly  weak- 
ness. You  have  heard  some  so  called  prayers  which  were 
nothing  better  than  catalogues  of  church  institutions  and 
advertisements  of  church  work;  such  as  "bless  the 
ragged  school,^'  "bless  the  band  of  hope,^'  "bless  an 
institution  lately  formed  in  this  place,  having  for  its 
object,^'  etc.,  "  bless  the  elder  scholars'*  prayer-meeting.''^ 
When  the  devotional  service  in  a  large  congregation  is 
made  up  of  such  petitions  it  cannot  be  wondered  at  that 
some  persons  do  not  care  to  be  in  attendance  "until 
the  prayer  is  over.''^  Of  course  there  are  times  when 
speciality  is  necessary ;  my  remarks  apply  to  the  general 
conduct  of  public  worship. 

In  seeking  a  definition  of  prayer  I  have  been  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  prayer  means  different  things  to  different 
people, — however  strange  that  may  seem.  To  the  man 
of  strong    emotional   temperament   prayer    signifies    the 


120       Ad  Olerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

poaring  out  of  tlie  lieart  in  grateful  praise  and  passionate 
supplication;  languid  and  contemplative  devotion  is  ab- 
horrent to  him ;  he  must  exclaim,  and  sing,  and  shout  for 
joy,  in  the  course  of  his  rapturous  prayer.  On  the  other 
hand,  to  a  man  of  more  practical  mind  this  rhapsody  is 
distressing ;  he  must  base  his  prayers  upon  facts ;  he 
prays  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  time;  his 
thankfulness  never  overflows ;  he  is  often  satisfied,  but 
seldom  joyous.  Then  there  is  the  suppliant  the  constitution 
of  whose  mind  makes  it  very  difiBcult  for  him  to  avoid  an 
argument  in  his  prayer ;  he  sees  life  as  a  long  process  in 
appHed  logic ;  he  devoutly  reasons  upon  the  succession 
and  inter-relation  of  events ;  he  prays  upon  his  feet,  he 
never  takes  wing  that  he  may  pray  just  outside  the  gate 
of  heaven;  he  never  sings  his  praise,  he  only  states  it  in 
accurate  and  sequential  terms.  In  strong  contrast  is  the 
contemplatist ;  he  knows  nothing  of  reasoning, 'takes  no 
heed  of  common  life,  never  individualizes,  and  seldom 
makes  a  request ;  to  him  God  is  a  Being  to  be  looked  at, 
talked  about,  and  adored ;  the  contemplatist  has  wonder- 
ful visions  of  creation — he  sees  God  upon  the  wings  of 
the  wind,  hears  His  going  among  the  trees  of  the  forest, 
beholds  His  shadow  flitting  over  the  stars,  marks  His 
hand  rolling  back  the  covering  of  the  night,  and  sees  the 
pillars  of  His  throne  in  the  foundations  of  the  universe. 
His  prayers  are  dictated  by  his  visions ;  they  are  wide  in 
range,  reverent  in  tone,  subdued  in  feeling ;  in  hearing 
them  we  seem  also  to  hear  a  solemn  silence,  as  if  all 
things  had  paused  that  his  voice  alone  might  be  heard ; 
he  never  touches  the  sin,  the  sorrow,  and  the  poverty  of 
common  human  life, — he  makes  us  feel  that  we  live  in  a 
temple,  and  that  we  are  encircled  by  Divinity.     Of  this 


The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit,  121 

kind  of  devotion    Theodore   Parker  presents   a   distin- 
guished illustration  ;  for  example  : — 

'^  A  greater  revelation  tlian  this  of  Thyself  hast  Thou 
made  in  Thy  still  small  voice,  which  whispers  in  our  soul 
that  all  this  magnificence  is  but  a  drop  of  Thee,  yea  a 
little  sparklet  that  has  fallen  from  Thy  presence,  Thou 
Central  Fire  and  Radiant  Light  of  all.  We  know  that 
these  outward  things  are  but  a  sparkle  of  Thy  power,  a 
whisper  of  Thy  wisdom,  a  faint  breath  of  Thy  loving- 
kindness/^  Once  more  : — "  Father,  we  thank  Thee  for  the 
world  about  us,  above,  and  beneath.  We  bless  Thee  for 
the  austere  loveliness  of  the  winter  heavens,  for  those 
fixed  or  wandering  fires  which  lend  their  splendour  to  the 
night,  for  the  fringe  of  beauty  wherewith  Thou  borderest 
the  morning  and  the  evening  sky,  and  for  this  daily  sun 
sending  his  roseate  flush  of  light  across  the  white  and 
wintry  world/'  Again:  ^^We  thank  Thee  for  the  ex- 
ceeding beauty  of  this  wintry  day,  we  bless  Thee  for  the 
ever  welcome  countenance  of  the  sun,  so  sweetly  looking 
down  upon  our  northern  land  and  bidding  winter  flee.  We 
thank  Thee  for  the  moon  which  scarfs  with  loveliness  the 
retreating  shoulders  of  the  night,  and  for  all  the  won- 
drous majesty  of  stars  wherewith  Thou  hast  spangled 
the  raiment  of  darkness,  giving  beauty  to  the  world 
when  the  sun  withdraws  his  light."  And  finally : — 
''  Father,  we  thank  Thee  for  this  beautiful  day  which  Thou 
hast  given  us,  for  the  glory  which  walks  over  our  heads 
through  the  sky,  for  the  pleasing  alternation  of  light  and 
shade,  and  all  the  gorgeous  beauty  wherewith  Thou 
clothest  the  summer  in  her  strength,  making  her  lovely 
to  the  eyes  of  men.  Father,  we  thank  Thee  that  Thou 
Uever  failest  to  Thy  world^  but  sheddest  dew  on  meadows 


122       Ad  Clerum  :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

newly  mown  and  rainest  down  Ttiine  inspiration  from  the 
clouds  of  lieaven  on  every  little  grass  and  every  mighty 
tree.  Father,  we  thank  Thee  that  Then  feedest  and 
carest  for  all  Thy  creatures,  the  motes  that  people  the 
sunbeams,  and  the  sparrows  which  fall  not  to  the  ground 
but  by  Thy  providence,  protecting  with  Thy  hand  the 
wandering  birds  of  summer  and  the  wandering  stars  of 
heaven,  holding  them  all  in  the  golden  leash  of  Thy  love, 
and  blessing  everything  which  Thou  hast  made/''  Now 
all  this  is  very  beautiful ;  but  is  it  devotional  ?  Is  it  not 
rhetoric  rather  than  religion,  or  religion  which  never  gets 
above  rhetoric  ?  In  my  opinion  all  this  could  have  been 
more  appropriately  said  in  an  essay  than  in  a  prayer  :  it  is 
adapted  to  the  human  ear;  and.  probably  it  could  not 
have  been  heard  without  drawing  men  to  praise  and 
magnify  the  ^'  Great  King  above  all  gods."  Mr.  Parker 
could  be  more  simple  in  prayer,  and  more  human  in  his 
petitions,  as  for  example — '^  We  remember  before  Thee 
the  sorrows  with  which  Thou  triest  us,  how  often  we 
stoop  us  at  the  bitter  waters  and  fill  our  mouths  with  sad- 
ness j  and  if  we  dare  not  thank  Thee  for  these  things,  if  we 
know  not  how  to  pray  Thee  about  them  as  we  ought,  we 
yet  thank  Thee  that  we  are  sure  that  in  all  these  things 
Thou  meanest  us  good,  and  out  of  these  seeming  evils 
still  producest  good,  making  all  things  work  together  for 
the  highest  advantage  of  Thine  every  child,  with  whom 
Thou  hast  not  a  son  of  perdition  and  not  a  single  cast- 
away. .  .  .  We  thank  Thee  for  that  home  whereinto 
Thou  gatherest  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and 
for  our  dear  ones  who  have  gone  thither  before  us,  and 
bless  Thee  that  they  are  still  not  less  near  because  they 
are  transfigured  with  immortal  glory,  and  have  passed  on' 


TliG  Minister  in  the  Pulpit.  123 

in  the  road  ourselves  must  also  tread/'  This  is  tlie  voice 
of  the  hearty — how  much  better  than  the  song  of  the  fancy ! 
You  will  find  much  in  the  prayers  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  to  suggest  trains  of  devotional  thought ;  as  an 
example  of  his  simplest  and  best  method  of  prayer  take 
the  following  : — ^'  If  there  are  those  in  Thy  presence 
that  by  ignorance  or  heedless  mistakes,  who  by  courses  of 
folly  and  wickedness  in  times  past,  are  suffering  severe 
penalties  and  trouble,  we  pray  that  they  may  not  spend 
their  time  in  useless  murmuring,  that  they  may  not  rebel 
against  the  past,  but  rather  may  they  take  hope  of  Thee, 
and  with  all  their  heart  turn  to  the  living  God,  and  find 
in  a  newness  of  life  that  peace  which  they  cannot  find  in 
the  present  nor  in  the  remembrances  of  the  past;  and 
may  every  one  have  hope  in  Thee !  May  none  feel  that 
they  are  in  a  state  without  hope  j  the  most  guilty, 
the  most  wicked,  those  that  have  sinned  longest  and 
deepest  and  darkest,  may  they  remember  that  there  is  a 
grace  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  even  to  them,  to  those  afar 
off  as  well  as  to  those  that  are  near  !  Oh,  make  Thine 
atoning  mercy  and  the  glory  of  Thy  forgiving  goodness 
apparent  unto  every  one ;  and  may  every  one  be  able  to 
see  that,  in  proportion  as  they  are  forgiven,  according  to 
the  magnitude  of  their  iniquity  and  the  greatness  of  their 
transgression,  will  be  the  glory  transcending  which  Thou 
wilt  have  if  Thou  showest  mercy  unto  them ;  and  while 
we  doubt  ourselves,  and  while  we  may  distrust  one  another, 
and  while  at  times  all  things  seem  unstable  and  unsatis- 
factory, oh  save  us  from  that  last  and  worst  disaster, — 
distrusting  Thee.  May  our  faith  in  God  be  immutable; 
and  even  when  we  are  so  guilty  that  we  cannot  look  up, 
at  least  may  we  be  able  to  bow  the  head,  to  smite  upon 


124       Ad  Glerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  V readier. 

our  breast^  and  say,  '  God,  be  merciful  to  us  sinners/ 
And  if  we  dare  not  sit  bj  Tliee  in  Thy  throne,  if  we 
dare  not  come  to  Thee  as  children  to  the  knees  of  their 
parents,  and  look  up,  at  least  may  we  sit  down  at  Thy 
feet,  and  find  there  that  we  are  sitting  at  the  feet  of  a 
Eedeemer,  pitying,  gentle^  forgiving,  all  succouring.  We 
pray  that  none  may  be  discouraged;,  may  every  one 
accept  his  life-work ;  may  every  one,  undismayed  and 
undaunted,  go  forward  from  good  to  better,  from  strength 
to  strength.  We  beseech  of  Thee  that  Thou  wilt  make 
us  useful ;  while  we  are  seeking  for  our  own  growth,  may 
we  not  treasure  up  strength  gained,  or  experiences,  or 
joys,  for  our  own  selfish  using;  but  as  we  receive  so 
may  we  give.  May  our  whole  life  be  a  life  of  seed- 
sowing  ;  may  our  life  be  a  work  for  God  and  for  man.'''' 

The  use  of  what  is  termed  ^'  free  prayer ''  may  easily 
degenerate  into  the  most  pitiable  barrenness  and  even 
into  the  most  shocking  absurdity.  It  requires  the  utmost 
discipline,  the  coolest  self-possession,  and  the  highest 
spirituality  both  of  perception  and  feeling.  To  express 
the  wants  of  the  multitude,  to  interpret  the  common  con- 
dition of  the  human  family,  to  condense  within  one  brief 
petition  all  that  is  most  urgent,  and  to  do  all  this  with 
appropriate  reverence  and  simplicity,  is  not  mthin  the 
reach  of  indolence  or  insensibility.  There  must  be  fore- 
thought, preparation,  and  consequent  steadiness  of  mind 
and  fulness  of  heart.  Among  the  faults  which  you  should 
strive  to  avoid  are  the  following  r^^ 

1.  Doctrinalism. — In  your  public  prayer  you  should  not 
take  occasion  to  state  or  argue  your  theological  opinions. 
Why  should  you  tell  man,  in  language  ostensibly  in- 
tended for  God,  why  you  are  a  Calvinist  rather  than  an 


The  Minister  in  the  Fulint.  125 

Arrainian  ?  Or  wliy  should  you  set  up  in  your  prayers 
a  Trinitarian  argument  in  opposition  to  tlie  Unitarian 
theology  ?  In  a  few  minutes  you  will  have  an  opportu- 
nity of  discussing  your  doctrines  in  your  sermon;  why  be 
so  eager  to  drag  them  into  your  prayer  ?  Have  you  no 
sin  to  confess,  no  mercy  to  implore,  no  praise  to  render, 
no  blessings  to  crave,  that  you  should  turn  polemic  on 
your  knees  and  defender  of  the  faith  with  your  eyes  shut  ? 
Your  heart  will  have  forgotten  itself  when  your  tongue 
becomes  controversial  in  prayer,  and  it  will  be  no  wonder 
if  God  turn  away  from  you  as  if  His  ear  were  heavy  that 
it  could  not  hear.  How  unprofitable  too  is  such  an  exer- 
cise to  the  poor,  the  sorrowing,  and  the  contrite  !  They 
feel  that  the  prayer  lies  remote  from  their  experience,  and 
so  it  becomes  to  them  an  unknown  and  unprofitable 
tongue  j  they  would  recognise  with  instant  thankfulness 
the  voice  which  expressed  feelings  which  they  themselves 
could  never  put  into  language,  and  would  feel  as  if  God 
had  sent  an  interpreter  to  their  aid.  The  heart  responds 
to  the  voice  which  takes  its  tone  from  the  common  ex- 
perience of  the  world ;  but  it  is  silent  under  the  barren 
words  of  a  sectarian  argument. 

2.  Personality. — Your  office-bearers  may  have  outvoted 
you  upon  a  debated  question ;  one  of  the  seatholders  has 
offended  your  wife ;  a  Sunday-school  teacher  has  called 
your  authority  in  question ;  under  these  circumstances 
what  a  temptation  there  is  to  jpray  at  the  miserable  of- 
fenders !  How  sweet  to  remember  them  in  one  condem- 
natory sentence !  How  just  to  brand  them  with  one  fiery 
commination  !  Or  there  is  another  plan  ;  you  may  make 
yourself  a  martyr  in  prayer ;  you  can  adopt  a  whining 
tone  of  resignation ;  you  can  show  the  unhe-^led  wounds 


'12G       Ad  Clerum  :   Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

of  your  suffering  hearty  and  refer  to  tliem  as  if  thej  were 
received  and  endured  in  a  very  becoming  spirit ;  you  can 
pray  for  your  enemies  with  sucli  desperate  magnanimity 
as  to  create  the  suspicion  that  you  would  behead  every 
one  of  them  if  a  fair  opportunity  ever  occurred ;  and  thus 
by  the  very  excess  of  your  saintliness  you  may  show  how 
far  you  are  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Never,  never 
jjray  at  your  congregation, — that  would  be  profaning  the 
altar.  It  is  even  worse  to  p7'ay  at  a  man  than  to  i:)reach 
at  him :  both  are  bad, — the  first  unpardonable.  When 
we  go  before  the  Lord  let  us  go  vnthout  bitterness  or 
malice, — how  otherwise  shall  God  hear  us  ?  Amidst  our 
remembrances  of  sin  against  Himself,  have  we  time  or 
desire  to  think  resentfully  of  wrongs  which  men  have 
committed  against  us  ?  Are  we  ourselves  quite  uncharge- 
able  with  social  offences  ?  Have  we  never  aimed  a  dart 
that  was  intended  to  injure,  if  not  to  destroy,  our  brother  ? 
Think  of  this,  and  never  make  profanity  the  medium  of 
forgiveness.  On  this  subject  the  words  of  the  late  Rev. 
Edward  Parsons  are  worthy  of  your  best  consideration : — 
^^But  what  shall  be  said  of  that  spirit  of  rancour  which 
so  grossly  violates  the  spirit,  and  perverts  the  design,  of 
prayer  ?  I  am  ashamed  to  reflect  upon  the  angry  and 
vindictive  tones  in  which  some  are  apt  to  address  the  God 
of  love,  whenever  they  happen  to  be  offended  with  man. 
Whatever  you  may  suffer  from  the  scourge  of  the  tongue, 
or  any  other  instrument  of  a  persecuting  malignity,  never 
let  your  sufferings  extort  from  you  a  word  that  would 
savour  of  a  retaliatory  disposition.  If  we  ought  not  to 
hint  at  private  disagreements,  disputes,  and  discords  in 
preaching  the  gospel  of  peace,  how  much  more  cautious  we 
should  be  against  this,  when  we  publicly  supplicate  the 


The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit.  127 

throne  of  grace  !  The  raan  who  can  be  so  overcome  by  an 
evil  temper  as  to  '  pray  at  *  those  who  displease  him  is 
guilty  of  contemptible  meanness  and  disgusting  impiety/^ 

3.  Favouritism. — There  is  a  very  subtle  temptation  in 
this  direction.  When  we  pray  in  a  rich  man's  family, 
how  affectionate  we  are  apt  to  be  I  "  Bless  Thy  clear  and 
honoured  servant ;  we  thank  Thee  for  all  Thou  hast  done 
for  him  and  hy  him,  and  we  affectionately  and  earnestly 
commend  him  to  Thy  blessing;  spare  his  valuahle  life,, 
and  may  he  and  Thy  dear  handmaiden  enjoy  much  of  Thy 
presence;  we  bless  Thee  that  their  praise  is  in  all  the 
churches,  and  that  all  who  know  them  love  them  for  their 
Christian  worth."  You  have  heard  such  words  ?  So 
have  I,  and  been  disgusted  with  them.  Our  prayer  for 
the  2^oor  man  has  often  been  much  shorter;  we  have 
seldom  thought  of  him  as  God's  dear  servant,  we  have 
named  him  as  a  stranger  in  God's  household,  and  barely 
admitted  that  God  might  care  for  him.  Oh,  shameful 
partiality, — miserable  truckling  to  gold !  But  it  is  not 
irrayer  ;  it  is  talk  that  never  goes  toward  heaven,  hypo- 
crisy which  delights  the  bad  angels.  Sir,  remember  that 
God  is  a  Spirit,  that  He  searches  the  heart,  and  that  His 
poorest  child  is  as  a  prince  in  His  sight ;  and  if  ever  you 
are  tempted  to  dismiss  the  poor  man's  case  with  one  cold 
word  may  you  be  convinced  of  sin  before  you  rise  from 
your  knees  !  When  you  pray,  for  rich  or  poor,  be  it 
without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy  ! 

4.  Secidarity. — Many  prayers  relate  almost  exclusively 
to  daily  blessings,  religious  institutions,  political  affairs, 
passing  events,  and  works  of  charity.  These  are  not  to 
be  forgotten,  yet  surely  they  should  not  occupy  the  fore- 
most place  in  supplication.     Study  to  give  spirituality  to 


128      Ad  Glerum :   Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

your  prayers;  pray  for  enlightenment  of  mind,  obe- 
dience of  will_,  and  sanctification  of  heart ;  send  out  your 
soul  in  quest  of  the  living  God,  and  cry  mightily  for  Him, 
until  He  draw  near  and  make  Himself  known  by  His 
brightness  and  inspiration.  Pray  much  for  the  Holy 
Ghost;  from  some  prayers  one  might  question  that  the 
church  had  ever  ^'  so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be  any 
Holy  Ghost "  (Acts  xix.  2),  so  low  are  they  in  tone  and 
so  limited  in  request.  We  forget  that  this  is  the  age  of 
the  Spirit ;  the  visible  Christ  has  ascended  into  the  hea- 
venly place  to  appear  for  us  before  God;  miracle  and 
marvellous  sign  have  been  withdrawn ;  and  now  we  live 
in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  He  lives  in  us  as  temples  which 
Christ  has  built.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  all-inclusive 
blessing ;  to  have  Him  is  to  have  life  and  love  and  com- 
fort :  pray  therefore  for  the  Holy  Ghost ;  with  this  great 
petition  as  a  groundwork,  you  may  traverse  the  whole 
circle  of  human  need;  without  it  your  most  elaborate 
prayer  will  be  earthly,  barren,  and  heathenish, — worthy 
of  a  pagan  altar. 

Some  advisers  would  caution  you  against  length  in 
prayer, — for  my  own  part  I  hesitate  to  do  so.  What  are 
long  prayers  ?  The  length  of  a  prayer  ought  not,  in  my 
opinion,  to  be  measured  by  time.  A  prayer  of  a  dozen 
sentences  may  be  long,  a  prayer  occupying  an  hour  may 
be  short.  Everything  depends  upon  the  spirit,  the  range, 
the  appropriateness,  and  the  purpose  of  the  prayer.  I 
have  heard  some  prayers  which  I  could  have  wished  to 
go  on  for  ever, — so  wise,  so  tender,  so  deeply  experi- 
mental, and  so  earnest  were  they ;  under  their  influence 
one  felt  that  God  was  nigh  at  hand,  and  longed  that 
He  might  ''  abide  with  us.^^     On  the  other  hand  I  have 


Tlw  Minister  in  the  Puljnt.  129 

felt  constrained  more  frequently  to  sympathise  with 
Whitefield  wlien  lie  said  to  a  tiresome  man,  "  Sir,  you 
prayed  me  into  a  good  frame,  and  then  you  prayed  me 
out  of  it/'  As  a  general  rule  I  should  urge  you  to  study 
brevity ;  but  there  are  times  of  spiritual  enlightenment 
and  quickening  when  you  must  abandon  all  technical 
rules  and  give  yourself  up  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Above  all  things  be  earnest  in  prayer;  mean 
what  you  say,  and  God  will  not  leave  you  without  a  token 
of  love; — remember  the  words  of  Brooks,  spoken  two 
hundred  years  ago,  but  true  for  ever  :  "  It  is  only  fervent 
prayer  that  is  effectual  prayer;  it  is  only  the  working 
prayer  that  works  wonders  in  heaven,  and  that  brings 
down  wonderful  assurance  into  the  heart.  Cold  prayers 
shall  never  have  any  warm  answers.  God  will  suit  His 
returns  to  our  requests ;  lifeless  services  shall  have  lifeless 
answers.     When  men  are  dull  God  will  be  dumb.'' 

Something  has  been  said  about  preparation  for  prayer. 
I  never  wrote  a  prayer  for  public  use,  and  never  com- 
mitted a  prayer  or  so  much  as  a  sentence  of  a  prayer 
to  memory,  with  a  view  to  its  being  recited  in  the 
pulpit ;  at  the  same  time  I  have  enjoyed  the  exercise  of 
writing  prayers,  and  have  derived  spiritual  advantage 
from  it.  Three  of  such  prayers  are  now  before  me,  and 
as  they  will  illustrate  my  meaning  better  than  any  de- 
scription I  can  give  of  them,  I  subjoin  them  for  your 
perusal : — 

Almighty  God,  our  hearts  have  longed  for  Thee  with 
unquenchable  desire;  even  as  the  hart  panteth  for  the 
waterbrook,  have  we  panted  for  the  living  God.  There 
is  no  fountain  in  all  the  earth  which  can  cool  our  burn- 

K 


130       Ad  Clerum :   Advices  to  a   Young  Preacher. 

ing;  Abana  and  Pliarpar  cannot  cleanse  us,  nor  can 
all  tlie  waters  in  Israel  take  away  our  leprosy.  We 
only  know  ourselves  as  we  know  Thee ;  out  of  Thy  pre- 
sence all  is  darkness^  but  when  Thou  art  shining  upon  us 
every  feature  of  our  life  is  made  beautiful.  Thou  wilt 
give  us  more  life^  so  that  we  shall  grow  away  from  the 
littleness  of  our  spiritual  infancy,  and  come  to  great 
stature  and  power  in  Jesus  Christ.  Hast  Thou  not  ex- 
horted us  to  grow  in  grace  ?  And  as  Thou  dost  send 
down  the  rain  and  the  snow  from  heaven,  and  pour  the 
light  of  the  sun  upon  the  earth,  that  it  may  be  covered 
with  fruitfulness,  so  Thou  wilt  give  us  all  help  in  this 
growth  to  which  Thou  hast  called  us,  until  we  attain 
Thine  own  idea  of  perfectness.  We  have  trembled  under 
our  Saviour^s  command  to  be  perfect  as  Thou  art  perfect; 
it  seemed  to  us  a  hard  word,  which  could  only  distress  our 
weakness  and  lead  us  to  bitter  disappointment;  it 
sounded  to  us  as  a  challenge  to  make  earth  as  large  and 
beautiful  as  heaven,  and  when  we  so  regarded  it  our 
hearts  sank  in  great  fear.  Lord  God,  our  Father,  tell  us 
how  we  can  be  holy  as  Thou  art  holy  !  Our  foundation 
is  in  the  dust,  and  we  are  crushed  before  the  moth;  how 
then  can  we  reach  the  measure  of  Thy  perfection  ?  Thou 
art  not  only  holy,  but  glorious  in  holiness  ;  Thy  name  is 
lioly  and  reverend,  and  there  is  no  darkness  in  Thee. 
But  now  we  know  wherein  we  erred  when  we  were  made 
sad  by  our  Saviour^s  word ;  we  thought  only  of  our  own 
weakness,  we  forgot  Thy  strength ;  we  looked  in  upon 
our  own  poor  hearts  instead  of  looking  away  to  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Jesus  Christ :  it  is  not  in  Thee  to  be 
harsh  with  Thy  children.  Thou  dost  not  strain  their 
power ;  therefore  do  we  trust  Thee,  that  in  this  c^ll  to 


The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit.  131 

holiness   Thou  wilt  work    mightily  in  us  by  Thy  Holy 
Spirit. 

It  is  in  our  hearts  to  speak  freely  to  Thee  to-day^  and 
to  tarry  long  before  Thee.  Though  we  cannot  tell  Thee 
anything,  yet  we  are  comforted  exceedingly  whilst  we 
commune  with  our  Father;  and  in  speaking  of  our  sin 
and  ignorance  and  shame  we  feel  as  if  Thou  wert  taking 
away  our  old  garments  and  clothing  us  with  all  the  beauty 
of  king's  children.  Oh  the  sweet  mystery  of  prayer ! 
Lord,  teach  us  how  to  pray.  Open  our  hearts,  that  of 
our  own  will  nothing  may  be  kept  from  Thee.  Thou 
hast  made  our  life  Thy  care,  and  brought  our  feet  into  a 
large  place.  We  remember  the  littleness  of  our  begin- 
ning ;  how  the  scorner  contemned  us,  and  the  haughty 
man  looked  upon  us  with  disdain,  but  our  secret  trust 
was  in  God,  and  Thou  hast  crowned  our  confidence  with 
exceeding  honour.  Thou  hast  made  a  place  for  us  near 
the  head  stone  of  the  corner,  and  set  us  high  above  many 
who  prophesied  evil  of  us.  Lord,  hold  Thou  us  up  and 
we  shall  be  safe !  Sometimes  our  feet  have  well-nigh 
slipped  in  secret  places,  and  whilst  men  thought  we  were 
good  our  own  spirits  smote  us  with  many  a  memory  of 
distrust  and  inconstancy  and  hidden  sin.  We  shudder  as 
we  recal  the  narrowness  of  our  escapes;  yet  they  were  not 
narrow,  for  did  not  all  Thy  love  stretch  between  us  and 
the  pit  of  the  enemy  ?  Were  not  all  Thy  angels  near  us, 
in  overshadowing  and  protecting  hosts  ?  Wast  Thou 
not  our  shield  and  buckler  ?  Yet  we  have  sinned,  and 
Oar  lips  are  not  worthy  to  pronounce  Thy  name.  We 
mourn  over  secret  sins ;  in  the  depths  of  our  hearts  we 
have  had  thoughts  which  have  afflicted  us  with  much 
pain;  our  words  have  not   always  been  sincere  to  our 

K  2 


132      Ad  Cleriim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

fellow-men;  tlie  importunity  of  our  own  interests  lias 
often  put  to  silence  tlie  heavenly  voice ;  we  have  some- 
times secured  ease  at  a  heavy  cost  of  conviction  and 
duty ;  we  have  dallied  with  the  tempter,  and  have  borne 
a  faltering  testimony  when  we  might  have  spoken  the 
word  of  truth  boldly.  What  is  our  hope  ?  It  is  still  in 
Jesus  Christ;  His  blood  cleanseth  from  all  sin;  wash 
us,  and  we  shall  be  whiter  than  snow;  hide  Thy  face 
from  our  sins,  and  blot  out  all  our  iniquities.  O  Lord, 
have  mercy  upon  us  ! 

We  will  speak  aloud  of  our  joys,  for  they  are  many  and 
great.  The  world  itself  has  become  a  new  place  to  us 
since  we  knew  Jesus  Christ.  Thou  hast  given  us  the 
spirit  of  interpretation,  so  that  all  things  have  meaning 
to  us  which  aforetime  seemed  to  have  no  place  in  Thy 
ministry.  The  earth  has  become  to  us  our  Father's 
house,  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven  speak  to  us  in  Thy 
name ;  we  see  all  living  creatures  around  Thy  table,  they 
all  wait  upon  Thee,  Thou  givest  them  their  meat  in  due 
season.  We  thank  Thee  for  our  own  daily  bread ;  when 
Thou  dost  break  it  for  us  it  becomes  more  than  equal  to 
all  our  hunger.  What  shall  we  say  then  of  Thine  un- 
speakable Gift  ?  Thou  hast  not  withheld  from  us  the  Son 
of  Thy  love ;  Thou  hast  set  the  treasure  of  Thine  heart 
before  us.  At  first  we  did  not  know  Him ;  we  thought 
He  was  without  form  and  comeliness,  and  there  was  no 
beauty  in  Him  to  awaken  our  desire ;  we  regarded  Him 
as  an  intrusion  and  an  ofi'ence,  and  gave  our  consent  that 
He  should  be  put  to  death.  But  now  our  best  praise  is 
too  poor  for  Him ;  our  hearts  leap  for  joy,  and  though  we 
look  at  Him  through  the  mingled  tears  of  penitence  and 
thankfulness  we  see  His  heavenly  beauty.     We  need  not 


The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit.  133 

tiiat  men  should  tell  us  that  He  is  God^  for  we  have 
proved  His  Godhead  by  His  work  in  our  lives ;  we  judge 
Him  no  more  by  the  testimony  of  the  letter;  we  know 
Him  by  our  transfigured  and  sanctified  love,  and  His 
claims  are  upheld  by  the  joyful  and  never  silent  witness 
of  our  hearts.  We  thank  Thee,  that  being  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  the  letter,  we  have  yet  come  to  see  in  the 
letter  itself  beauties  which  had  long  escaped  us,  so  Thy 
testament  in  Christ  Jesus  is  verily  new  to  us  day  by  day, 
and  while  the  Godhead  of  Thy  Son  rises  beyond  all  our 
thought  and  draws  after  it  the  wings  of  our  prayer,  yet 
His  pure  and  gentle  manhood  covers  the  whole  breadth 
of  our  lives  with  the  sympathy  and  protection  of  loving 
brotherliness.  We  would  that  all  men  might  know  Jesus 
Christ  as  we  know  Him  ;  that  they  might  lay  hold  upon 
Him  as  their  Saviour,  and  feel  how  good  it  is  to  begin  their 
lives  from  His  redeeming  cross.    Hear  us  on  their  behalf ! 

Look  upon  us  as  a  congregation,  and  let  Thy  look  be 
love.  May  the  ministry  of  this  house  be  baptized  as 
with  fire,  and  may  its  whole  organization  work  out  the 
highest  ends.  Bless  all  the  churches  round  about  us,  by 
what  name  soever  known  amongst  men ;  and  through  the 
united  instrumentality  of  all  Thy  people  may  Jesus 
Christ^s  kingdom  be  established  speedily.  As  for  our 
country,  may  Thy  power  be  its  defence.  God  save  the 
Queen.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  gentle  womanliness 
which  she  has  displayed,  and  we  commend  her  to  Thy 
blessing,  0  King  of  kings;  may  her  children  be  Thy 
children ;  and  may  the  God  of  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
the  portion  of  her  household. 

This  is  our  prayer ;  Lord,  answer  us  in  peace. 


]  34      Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

Almighty  God,  tliougli  Thou  art  unsearcliable,  yet  in 
Jesus  Christ  we  have  seen  the  brightness  of  Thy  face. 
We  have  long  sought  for  Thee,  but  Thou  didst  not  come 
closely  to  us  in  all  the  works  of  Thy  hands ;  we  said, 
Surely  we  shall  find  God  in  the  light,  and  His  face  will 
shine  upon  us  through  the  congregation  of  the  stars ;  we 
have  gone  forward  but  Thou  wast  not  there,  backward 
but  we  could  not  perceive  Thee,  on  the  left  hand  where 
Thou  dost  work,  but  we  could  not  behold  Thee,  Thou 
didst  hide  Thyself  on  the  right  hand,  so  that  our  eye 
could  not  see  Thee.  We  heard  that  Thy  way  was  in  the  sea 
and  Thy  path  in  the  great  waters,  but  in  all  the  floods 
we  did  not  hear  the  voice  for  which  our  hearts  longed  in 
sadness.  We  have  wandered  wearily  through  the  temple 
of  Nature,  but  it  was  as  a  chamber  in  which  there  was 
no  light ;  we  have  watched  all  the  seasons,  yet  they  have 
been  to  us  only  as  the  beautiful  garments  of  an  unknown 
guest.  All  this  has  often  made  our  heart  ache,  and  de- 
stroyed the  balance  of  our  thoughts ;  we  have  felt  very 
lonely,  and  sometimes  in  our  sorrow  we  have  wished  to 
die.  This  morning  we  glorify  Thee  that  Jesus  Christ 
has  satisfied  all  our  hunger  and  thirst,  and  has  given  rest 
to  eyes  tired  with  long  watching ;  Thine  only-begotten 
Son,  who  dwelt  from  unbeginning  time  in  the  bosom  of 
His  Father,  has  risen  upon  us  as  the  dayspring  from  on 
high  j  and  our  hearts  are  suflBced.  We  thank  Thee  for 
His  human  form,  because  it  brings  Him  so  near  us;  and  we 
thank  Thee  for  His  great  sorrows,  because  their  recollection 
often  lifts  us  above  our  own  griefs.  Truly  Thou  didst  in 
Jesus  Christ  give  us  an  unspeakable  gift ;  we  can  sooner 
stretch  a  line  upon  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and 
comprehend  the  dust  of  the  earth  in  a  measure,  than  find 


The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit.  135 

out  tlie  lengtli  and  breadth,  tlie  depth  and  height  of  Thy 
love  which  passeth  understanding.  Why  didst  Thou  sc 
enrich  us  with  all  this  love  ?  Surely  we  had  destroyed 
our  beauty  and  perverted  all  the  comeliness  of  Thine 
image,  and  all  our  dignity  had  been  thrown  down  into 
the  dust  and  covered  with  shameful  dishonour;  yet 
Thou  didst  come  after  us  as  if  Thy  heart  was  troubled 
by  our  absence,  and  Thou  didst  call  us  with  a  voice  that 
was  made  tremulous  by  anxiety,  so  tender  and  overflow- 
ing was  Thy  love.  Feeling  our  own  poverty  and  little- 
ness, we  have  often  wondered  how  Thou  couldst  love  us 
so  much ;  why  didst  Thou  not  throw  us  into  a  pit  of  for- 
getfulness,  and  call  around  Thee  the  unfallen  children  of 
light,  and  throne  Thyself  above  their  adoring  praises  ? 
Surely  Thou  hast  purposed  a  great  destiny  for  us,  and  in 
ages  to  come  we  shall  know  somewhat  of  the  meaning  of 
our  amazing  redemption  :  we  confine  our  view  within  the 
dying  day,  and  are  lost  in  troubled  wonder ;  but  when 
we  lay  hold  of  our  immortality  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  think 
of  the  revelations  which  Thou  hast  yet  in  store  for  us,  we 
are  made  strong  and  glad  by  a  great  hope. 

To-day  we  are  once  more  sheltered  in  Thy  holy  house, 
and  in  our  hearts  there  is  a  calm.  We  are  as  men  who 
have  escaped  from  sore  toil,  and  come  suddenly  to  a 
sweet  resting-place ;  round  about  us  there  is  a  light 
above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  and  the  air  is  rich  with 
reviving  odours  ;  surely  God  is  in  this  place,  and  His  hand 
is  opened  to  give  us  gifts.  We  bring  but  a  poor  presence 
to  Thy  throne,  and  we  might  feel  out  of  place  when  we 
think  how  many  and  how  pure  are  the  suppliants  now 
gathered  around  Thee ;  the  marks  of  the  ravenous  beast 
are  upon  us,  we  are  quite  without  strength  or  beauty,  and 


136      Ad  Clerum  :  Adcices  to  a  Young  Freaclier. 

all  tliat  we  can  speak  of  in  ourselves  is  unworthy  of  tlie 
calling  where witli  Thou  hast  called  us ;  yet  we  lift  up  our 
heads  hopefully  towards  Thee  because  at  Thy  right  hand 
is  seated  Jesus  Christ  our  great  High-priest,  who  has 
borne  wounds  and  death  for  us,  and  who  carries  us  all  in 
the  pain  of  His  crucifixion  and  in  the  triumphant  power 
of  His  resurrection.  Blessed  Jesus,  our  hearts  overflow 
with  loving  thankfulness  when  we  do  but  touch  the  hem  of 
Thy  garment,  what  then  shall  be  our  rapture  when  we  see 
all  Thy  beauty  and  serve  for  ever  under  Thy  rule  in  a 
universe  where  there  is  no  sin  !  At  present  we  have  a  twi- 
light vision,  but  we  shall  yet  see  the  full  day ;  Thou  hast 
thrown  a  few  spring  flowers,  we  know  not  all  the  riches 
of  the  summer  that  is  above ;  we  delight  to  think  that  we 
have  seen  only  the  beginning,  that  the  sabbath  and  the 
sanctuary,  the  book  and  the  altar,  are  only  as  entrances 
to  the  palace  whose  foundations  are  laid  in  infinitude  and 
whose  top  stone  is  high  beyond  all  measurement,  the 
palace  of  the  great  King  !  We  are  thankful  for  any  sug- 
gestion  which  enlarges  the  idea  of  our  destiny,  and  so 
calls  us  to  dignity  of  behaviour  in  the  present  world  :  the 
Berpent  told  us  that  we  should  be  as  gods,  and  we  believed 
his  lie ;  but  Thou,  blessed  and  mighty  Saviour,  hast  called 
us  to  sit  upon  the  throne  which  Thou  dost  share  with 
Thy  Father,  and  our  hearths  desire  is  that  we  may  fulfil 
Thy  will. 

Make  our  present  communion  very  sweet;  may  our 
hearts  have  rest,  and  let  our  minds  be  filled  with  the 
riches  of  our  Lord  :  Thou  hearest  Him  alway,  and  for  His 
sake  Thou  wilt  incline  Thine  ear  to  our  prayer.     Amen. 


The  Minister  in  the  Pulpit.  137 

Almighty  God_,  we  are  glad  to  be  found  again  in  Thy 
sanctuary^  for  our  feet  are  weary  and  our  hearts  long  for 
rest.  We  have  been  all  the  week  in  the  cold  worlds  and 
have  sighed  over  its  sinfulness  and  disquietude.  Yet 
how  poor  is  our  estimate  of  its  condition  when  compared 
with  Thine.  We  see  only  the  outside  deformity  and 
blemish;  but  Thine  eye  searches  the  recesses  of  the 
corrupt  hearty  and  sees  through  all  the  dark  and  pestilent 
chambers  of  death.  There  is  nothing  hid  from  Thine 
eye.  Our  service  in  the  world  has  quickened  our  desire 
to  enter  into  the  praises  of  Thy  sanctuary,  for  we  have 
felt  as  men  who  sigh  in  a  far-off  land  for  the  sweetness 
and  comfort  of  home.  Now  are  we  in  Thine  house,  and 
a  sense  of  safety  makes  us  glad ;  we  feel  that  we  are  in  a 
city  of  refuge,  into  which  no  manslayer  may  enter  and 
where  no  ravenous  beast  may  be  found.  This  is  our 
Father's  house,  and  the  enemy  has  no  place  in  it.  Thou 
dost  shut  the  gate  upon  the  foe,  and  he  cannot  elude  Thy 
watchful  eye.  Come  then,  and  meet  us,  speak  comfort- 
ably to  our  hearts,  and  by  the  infinite  tenderness  of  Thy 
love  rather  than  by  the  alarming  thunder  of  Thy  law  do 
Thou  bow  down  ourhearts  in  the  joyful  sorrow  of  penitence.. 
We  do  not  claim  to  be  better  than  our  fellow-men,  for 
we  are  by  nature  the  children  of  wrath  even  as  others ; 
but  if  there  is  aught  in  us  well-pleasing  to  Thy  holiness 
and  love  it  has  been  wrought  in  us  through  the  brother- 
liness  and  priesthood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom 
as  unto  Thyself  we  humbly  desire  to  give  the  adoration 
and  thankfulness  due  to  His  Godhead.  Yet  though  we 
are  in  our  Father's  house,  we  are  not  altogether  at  ease, 
by  reason  of  those  whom  we  have  left  behind.  Our  love 
to  Thee  fills  us  with  love  to   men;    and   this  divinely 


138      Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

excited  love  goes  out  in  sorrowing  wonder  and  earnest 
yearning  after  the  wandering  and  tlie  lost.  How  much 
more  does  Thy  heart  go  after  them  !  We  are  amazed  at 
Thy  lingering  patience,  for  we  know  not  all  the  depth  and 
tenderness  of  God^s  unutterable  love.  Yet  all  our  hope 
is  in  that  long  patience,  which  is  patient  above  all  womanly 
love  and  motherly  care,  and  which  would  gladly  weary 
out  the  devices  and  temptations  of  the  great  enemy.  To 
Thy  love  and  all  the  ministry  which  is  centred  in  Jesus 
Christ  Thou  needest  not  that  we  commend  all  who  are 
not  with  us  this  day.  Yet  it  is  in  our  hearts  to  pray 
much  for  them,  that  they  may  be  recovered  from  the 
captivity  of  Satan. 

What  shall  we  say  of  our  own  sin  ?  We  cannot  speak 
of  it  without  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  especially  when 
we  think  of  all  the  mercy  which  Thou  hast  shown  towards 
us.  Thou  hast  given  us  so  much  that  it  would  appear  as 
if  our  very  sin  could  not  quench  the  fountain  of  Thy 
blessing,  yet  surely  this  is  a  foolish  imagining  on  our 
part,  for  we  cannot  tell  how  much  Thou  canst  give  if  we 
had  but  spiritual  capacity  to  receive  it.  Our  iniquities 
have  kept  good  things  from  us.  God  be  merciful  to  us 
sinners  !  We  lay  our  hand  upon  the  cross,  and  find  all 
our  hope  in  the  blood  of  Thy  Son,  which  cleanseth  from  all 
sin.  Think  of  us  in  Jesus  Christ's  name,  and  even  yet 
our  sins  shall  not  shut  Thee  out.  Thou  seekest  to  dwell 
in  us  as  in  a  holy  temple ;  come  and  do  so,  and  be  the 
only  Guest  in  the  whole  sanctuary  of  our  love.  Thou  hast 
made  us  for  Thyself,  and  we  mourn  that  other  gods  have 
had  dominion  over  us  :  they  were  unclean  and  cruel  gods, 
and  we  would  cast  out  every  sign  of  their  awful  presence. 
While  we  are  yet  speaking  of  our  sin  do  Thou  forgive  it. 


Tlie  Minister  in  the  Pulpit,  139 

and  tliougli  we  would  not  have  our  sense  of  its  enormity 
diminislied  we  would  see  Thy  love  exceeding  and  over- 
shadowing our  great  sinfulness.  How  much  hast  Thou 
already  forgiven  us !  We  know  not  of  any  hour  in  oui 
whole  life  that  did  not  need  to  be  purified  and  brightened 
by  Thy  forgiveness^  that  it  might  be  worthy  of  a  place  in 
the  immortality  which  is  given  us  in  Jesus  Christ.  Even 
noWj  whilst  we  are  in  this  Thy  house,  let  us  hear  Thee 
saying  that  all  our  sin  is  cast  behind  Thee. 

We  know  not  how  to  tell  Thee  of  our  many  wants ; 
our  joy  is  that  Thou  needest  not  to  be  told.  As  Thy 
great  waters  flood  all  the  beds  of  the  sea,  and  Thy  rains 
fall  even  upon  the  desert  and  the  rock,  and  the  light  of 
the  sun  shines  upon  all  the  earth,  even  more  doth  Thy 
love  pour  itself  down  upon  the  poverty  of  our  needy  and 
anxious  hearts.  We  would  be  wise  in  Thy  wisdom  ;  we 
would  love  more  according  to  the  quality  and  measure  of 
Thy  love ;  we  would  be  high  above  the  world  as  Thou 
art,  yet  ever  caring  for  it,  and  helping  to  make  it  good ; 
we  would  partake  of  Thy  riches,  that  other  men  might 
partake  of  our  bounty.  Thou  hast  given  us  all  that  'has 
ever  been  for  our  good,  every  clear  idea  of  truth,  every 
tender  emotion  towards  human  suffering  and  want,  and 
every  aspiration  which  has  raised  us  out  of  the  benumbing 
influences  of  grovelling  pursuits.  Nor  have  we  exhausted 
Thee ;  Thou  art  not  a  hireling  serving  an  appointed  time. 
Thou  art  the  everlasting  Father,  full  of  all  riches,  which 
Thou  offerest  to  the  children  of  men ;  therefore  we  come 
again  to  the  overflowing  river  of  Thy  lovingkindness. 

We  aspire  very  highly  this  morning,  being  encouraged 
to  do  so  by  Thy  rich  providential  mercies.  Thou  hast 
given  us  the  joy  of  early  harvest ;  and  just   as  men^s 


140       Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

hearts  were  failing  theni  by  reason  of  long  continued 
drouglit^  wherein  the  water  springs  did  fail  and  the  rivers 
shrink  from  their  banks.  Thou  hast  made  a  way  for  the 
lightnings  and  through  the  paths  of  the  thunder  Thou 
hast  poured  the  cooling  and  freshening  rain  upon  the 
parched  fields.  Thou  hast  also  showers  of  blessing  for 
Thy  church,  yea,  even  a  blessing  which  the  church  has 
not  room  enough  to  contain.  Excite  in  our  hearts  intense 
covetousness  for  this  blessing,  that  we  may  give  Thee  no 
rest  until  Thou  hast  opened  the  windows  of  heaven. 
Give  us  firmer  hold  of  Christ^s  truth,  and  a  truer  expe- 
rience of  His  unspeakable  peace  ;  and  may  we  prove  that 
Thou  hast  heard  us  by  living  a  holy  and  most  heavenly 
life  among  men.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  receive 
the  praise  and  trust  of  our  waiting  hearts.    Amen. 


X. 

PUBLISHED   SERM0:N'S. 

You  may  not  liave  heard  tliat  we  liave  formed  a  kind  of 
ministerial  club  which  we  dignify  with  the  name  of  the 
Gity  Temple  Council;  I  propose  therefore  to  make  you 
acquainted  with  some  of  our  proceedings^  that  you  may 
see  with  what  audacity  we  sometimes  talk  of  better  men 
than  ourselves,  and  with  what  consummate  wisdom  we 
dispose  of  vexed  outstanding  questions  in  the  world  of 
the  pulpit.  We  claim  exemption  from  every  species  and 
degree  of  obligation ;  we  care  nothing  for  missing  links  ; 
we  rather  pride  ourselves  than  otherwise  upon  informality 
and  abruptness  of  speech ;  and  it  is  our  glory  that  w£ 
dare  tell  what  we  think,  under  the  defiant  flag  of  in- 
corruptible independence.  Our  number  is  purposely 
small ;  four  talkers  and  two  dummies  are  all  that  we  care 
to  have,  though  scores  of  brethren  would  give  almost 
half  their  goods  to  be  allowed  to  sign  their  names  on  the 
list  of  the  dauntless  Six.  The  two  dummies  are  excellent 
men ;  we  keep  them  to  save  us  from  the  least  appearance 
of  heterodoxy,  and  most  admirably  do  they  serve  the 
purpose.  They  cannot  truthfully  be  described  as  men  of 
ideas,  though  we  dare  not  so  much  as  hint  at  such  a 
thing  in  their  solemn  presence;  they  have  nice  shiny 
round  heads  which  would  instantly  make  the  reputation 
of  any  society,  and  as  they  never  take  their  black  kid 


Ii2      Ad  Clerum:    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

gloves  off  at  tlie  council  board  they  throw  a  kind  of 
other- world  air  over  proceedings  which  often  threaten  to 
be  much  too  earthly  and  boisterous.  You  must  not 
imagine  that  they  are  literally  dumb^ — if  they  were  how 
could  they  be  members  of  a  Preachers'  Council  ?  All 
that  is  meant  is  that  they  very  seldom  speak  in  the  club ; 
their  nice  bald  heads  shine  at  us_,  their  well  gloved  hands 
chasten  the  appearance  of  the  board ;  now  and  again  they 
make  a  joint  rush  at  some  unusual  statement ;  and  this  is 
about  all_,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  sonorous  "  hear 
hears/'  that  they  do  in  their  strictly  official  capacity  as 
members  of  the  Preachers'  Council.  Yet  nothing  could 
tempt  us  to  part  with  these  excellent  dummies,,  so 
established- and  indisputable  is  their  character  as  orthodox 
theologians ;  it  may  be  wondered  indeed  how  they  can 
meet  with  such  freebooters  as  ourselves,  but  when  I  tell 
you  that  we  give  them  more  than  three-fourths  of  their 
homiletic  outlines  you  will  see  that  they  do  not  serve 
the  board  for  nought,  and  that  they  have  peculiar  reasons 
for  not  meddling  with  our  reputation  as  sound  divines. 
The  talkers  should  rather  be  spoken  of  as  three  than 
four,  because  for  reasons  best  known  to  themselves  the 
brethren  asked  me  to  be  chairman,  and  for  the  same  con- 
clusive reasons  I  granted  their  request.  Mr.  Washington 
(thickly  bearded,  with  a  gentle  hazel  eye,  and  a  voice 
which  says  the  boldest  things  in  the  most  timid  tone)  is 
a  prince  of  high  intellectual  and  spiritual  degree.  A  truer 
man  never  breathed.  Often  the  shiny  round  heads  are 
doubtfully  wagged  when  he  is  talking  some  of  his  grand- 
est things,  yet  his  words  are  chosen  in  wisdom  and  his 
thoughts  are  drawn  from  the  well  of  life.  When  he 
says   anything   severe   he   says   it   with   reluctance  and 


PuhlisJied  Sermons.  143 

moderation,  and  tlius  actually  doubles  the  force  wliicli  lie 
intended  to  restrain.  Next  to  him  usually  sits  a  bright 
little  brother,  who  is  so  prudent  yet  so  sharp,  so  honest 
yet  so  pricking  in  his  talk,  that  we  have  agreed,  with  his 
own  genial  consent,  to  know  him  and  speak  of  him  as  the 
Safety-pin.  He  knows  nothing  of  self-control ;  he  first 
speaks,  then  thinks,  and  concludes  the  inverted  and 
vexatious  process  by  assuring  the  brethren  that  what  he 
has  said  has  been  in  the  strictest  confidence.  1  wonder 
if  he  fancies  that  a  wound  is  any  the  less  deep  because  it 
is  inflicted  behind  a  screen !  One  thing  is  certain,  he 
never  agrees  with  any  of  us  if  he  can  possibly  contradict 
and  defy  us,  and  if  ever  he  is  in  danger  of  thinking  as 
we  think  he  seems  to  feel  his  condition  acutely.  This 
unamiability  is  a  special  qualification  for  membership  in 
a  controversial  club,  and  in  that  light  is  regarded  by  his 
associates.  The  third  of  the  speaking  members  is  Mr. 
Dolson, — a  brother  who  has  a  perfect  mania  for  various 
readings;  he  can  never  be  satisfied  until  he  knows 
whether  BDKLJ  agrees  with  CLM%  and  whether 
C^D  confirms  CHL.  Mr.  Dolson  would  be  an  excellent 
theologian  if  he  could  so  far  get  over  the  etymological 
difficulty  as  to  convince  himself  that  any  one  word  in  any 
one  language  has  anything  like  a  definite  and  sensible 
meaning.  As  to  the  chairman  nothing  must  be  said, — 
he  is  the  chairman,  and  is  not  that  enough  ?  I  shall  now 
proceed  to  report  one  of  our  conversations,  with  the  hope 
that  you  may  light  upon  something  which  will  be  of  use 
to  you  as  a  student  for  the  ministry. 


'^  Seen  Binney^s  new  volume  of  old  sermons^  any  of 
you?^^  Safety-pin  inquired. 


144    Ad   Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Freaclier. 

"  You  have  evidently/^  one  of  tlie  dummies  actually 
said,  to  tlie  amazement  of  every  member,  "  or  you  could 
not  have  described  it ;  '^  and  the  shiny  round  head 
beamed  brightly. 

Yes ;  we  had  all  seen  the  volume,  and  had  read  most  of  it. 
'^  A  capital  volume,  too,^^  said  Mr.  "Washington,  ^^  and  I 
am  glad  to  have  such  a  memorial  of  such  a  ministry.''^ 

''  Can^t  see  it,**^  said  Safety-pin ;  ^^  I  like  Binney  as  well 
as  any  of  you,  but  it  seems  to  me — though  of  course 
what  we  say  here  is  said  in  confidence,  that  ^s  understood 
I  hope '' 

'^  Thoroughly  so,'^  said  I  with  official  promptitude  and 
emphasis. 

"  It  seems  to  me,^^  Safety-pin  continued,  ^Hhat  Binney^s 
book  might  have  been  entitled  ^  Bewildering  Essays,  or 
the  Gospel  made  dark,  or  the  Gospel  argued  to  death '  '^ 
— the  shiny  round  heads  moved  rapidly  in  sign  of  contra- 
diction. "  Well,  brethren  may  shake  their  heads  if  they 
please,  but  that  is  my  opinion;  I  can  understand  the 
texts  but  not  the  sermons ;  the  sermons  seem  to  me  very 
much  like  the  attempt  of  a  wrymouthed  man  to  blow  a 
candle  out,  the  candle  being  the  text.''^ 

Bolson.  ''  Whatever  do  you  mean  ?  your  figure  is  ex- 
traordinary.^^ 

Safety '^in.  '^  But  correct ;  I  mean  that  the  texts  are 
lights,  and  that  Binney  blows  them  out  in  a  very  laborious 
manner."  Mr.  Washington  said,  ^'  No,  no,"  and  the  two 
shiny  round  heads  confirmed  his  judgment  by  vigorous 
shaking.  "  But  I  say  it  is  so,"  added  the  Piu,  and 
the  brethren  laughed  heartily  at  this  unsophisticated 
assurance. 

Mr.  Dolson   proceeded  to   attack   the    Safety-pin  by 


Puhlislied  Sermons.  145 

urging  upon  liim  the  duty  of  being  critically  correct  in 
e:?pounding  a  text,  and  of  collating  tlie  various  read- 
ings— 

^'  Tut,  man  !  '^  the  Safety-pin  interrupted^  '^  bag  o' 
moonshine !  what  do  people  want  with  such  technical 
arguments  and  cumbrous  judicial  summaries  as  some  of 
you  deal  in  ?  They  make  me  cry  out,  ^  whenever  will  the 
man  get  done  ?  we  know  all  about  that ;  do  get  on_,  and 
let  us  have  something  to  bless  our  trembling  and  anxious 
life/ '' 

^'^Does  Mr.  Binney  not  give  you  the  gosijel?"  Dolson 
boldly  inquired,  amid  the  repeated  and  sonorous  "  hear 
hears ''  of  the  dummies,,  who  spoke  both  at  once. 

"Certainly  not/'  said  Safety-pin,  "that  is  exactly 
what  he  does  not  give  us'' — (the  shiny  round  heads 
nearly  shook  themselves  off)  ;  "  he  talks  ahoiii  the  gospel, 
he  goes  round  and  round  the  gospel,  he  makes  hard 
riddles  and  problems  out  of  the  gospel,  but  the  gospel 
itself  in  its  simplicity  and  adaptation  to  human  want  he 
seldom  preaches  in  this  volume." 

We  all  protested  warmly  against  this,,  and  most  justly. 
The  two  solid  brethren  both  spoke  together,  and  thus  - 
destroyed  the  individuality  of  their  testimony,  which 
seemed  to  be  one  of  great  indignation  against  the  cen- 
sorious critic.  Mr.  Washington  strongly  resented  the 
opinion  of  the  Safety-pin,  and  sharply  demanded  what 
was  meant  by  so  libellous  a  statement. 

The  Safety-pin  was  not  only  unabashed,  but  rather 
proud,  for  he  detested  the  stagnation  of  unanimity. 
"Gentlemen,"  said  he  vivaciously,  "rage  away,  and  when 
you  have  cooled  yourselves  I  shall  tell  you  what  I  mean ; 
now  it  so  happens  that  I  have  the  volume  with  me;  and  T 

L 


146       Ad  Glerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  PreacJier. 

sliall,  if  you  please,  open  it  at  random  and  read  a  few  of 
the  long  words  and  teclinical  expressions  which  have  led 
me  to  infer  a  want  of  fervent  earnestness  on  the  part  of 
the  preacher,  and  to  fear  that  he  has  been,  however 
unconsciously,  trying  to  make  an  important  figure  of 
himself:  now  I  read  at  random,  and  you  may  read  with 
me  if  you  like:  'limits  of  human  consciousness;  piercing 
intuition ;  system  of  natural  law ;  re-establish  the  har- 
mony of  things  j  passive  impressions,  subjective  excite- 
ments ;  concentrate  the  action  of  the  mysterious  force  in 
this  subjective  process;  revealing  the  objective  faith; 
would  infallibly  flow,  by  way  of  necessary  efi'ect,  from  an 
ever  ope-rating  cause ;  slender  and  superficial  hypothesis  ; 
the  hypothesis  of  such  Divine  Personality ;  stoppage  of 
the  actions  of  moral  law;  an  acknowledged  philosophical 
course  of  thought;  the  most  perfectly  philosophic  and 
satisfactory  solution  of  all  the  admitted  phenomena; 
philosophic  naturalism  ;  revealing  the  objective '  " 

We  all  cried  stojj ;  the  two  solid  brethren  went  so  far 
as  to  say  that  by  this  plan  of  picking  out  a  word  here 
and  a  word  there  they  could  make  nonsense  of  any 
book  in  the  world ;  Mr.  Dolson  said  it  was  shocking ; 
Mr.  Washington  that  as  a  method  of  criticism  it  was 
simply  -ridiculous,  an  opinion  in  which  the  chairman 
concurred. 

"Tery  well,  gentlemen,*'  said  Safety-pin,  ''you  may 
misunderstand  me  if  you  like,  but  for  your  own  sakes 
don't  run  away  with  the  notion  that  I  am  setting  this  up 
as  a  method  of  criticism ;  I  am  not  doing  anything  so 
insane  :  I  mean  to  say  that  Mr.  Binney  has  talked  a  kind 
of  semi-philosophical  jargon,  and  that  he  has  chopped  up 
Christian  doctrine  into   little    technicalities,    instead    of 


Puhlii'hed  Sermons,  147 

boldly  proclaiming  it  to  sinners  as  a  way  of  salvation  and 
to  saints  as  a  hope  of  final  sanctity ;  lie  always  seems  to 
be  talking  to  people  wlio  are  either  infidels  or  scoffers, 
for  every  sermon  is  just  like  a  pitched  battle  with  foes 
that  are  more  imaginary  than  real/^ 

The  shiny  round  heads  were  shaken  again,  and  the 
face  of  Mr.  Dolson  settled  into  the  aspect  of  despair. 

"  I  am  not  prepared  to  deny,"  said  Mr.  Washington, 
"  that,  in  one  view  of  the  matter,  there  is  force  in  what 
Safety-pin  has  said ;  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is 
a  strong  tendency  in  Mr.  Binney^s  mind  to  get  round  to 
the  purely  intellectual  side  of  every  subject,  and  to  discuss 
his  texts  as  if  in  the  hearing  of  captious  men,  who  were 
mentally  contradicting  everything  he  said ;  he  wants  to 
give  reasons  for  everything,  and  to  ennoble  common  sense 
by  assigning  it  a  responsible  function  in  the  sanctuary  ; 
he  is  always  anxious  to  marry  Reason  and  Faith,  and 
consequently  he  defies  all  comers  justly  to  forbid  the 
banns." 

'  ^^And  is  that  a  commendable  way  of  preaching  the 
gospel?"   Safety-pin  inquired. 

"  As  a  general  rule  I  should  say  not/'  Mr.  Washington 
replied,  "  and  probably  Mr.  Binney  himself  would  agree 
with  us;  but  you  must  bear  in  mind  that  we  do 
require  defenders  of  the  faith,  and  that  their  work  is 
second  to  none  in  importance.  Now  Mr.  Binney  is  dis- 
tinctively, perhaps  above  all  his  brethren,  a  defender  of 
the  faith ;  to  his  own  mind  Christianity  is  so  eminently 
reasonable  that  he  becomes  almost  impatient  with  those 
who  hesitate  to  accept  it  as  such ;  to  Mr.  Binney^s  mind 
there  seems  to  be  hardly  any  space  at  all  between  common 
sense  and  Christian  faith,  and  he  himself  has  such  ^  joyful 

L  2 


148      Ad  Olerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

satisfaction  in  receiving  Christianity  through,  his  reasoyi 
that  he  wishes  all  that  hear  him  to  be  as  he  is/^ 

''  But  where  is  there  a  congregation  made  up  of  doubters 
and  infidels?"  said  Safety-pin. 

*'  True/^  Mr.  Washington  replied^  '^  and  therefore  I 
say  that  as  a  general  rule  such  preaching  would  very 
likely  not  be  acceptable  because  it  would  not  be 
appropriate. ■'' 

One  of  the  dummies  here  interposed  that  '^such 
preaching  would  make  its  own  congregation.-'^ 

^''Precisely  so/^  Mr.  Washington  continued;  "and 
no  doubt  Mr.  Binney  has  had  a  unique  congregation ; 
probably  more  sceptics  have  found  their  way  to  his  chapel 
than  to  any  other  chapel  in  England.  I  should  say  that 
is  very  likely^  and  if  so  it  is  very  satisfactory.''^ 

"  He  takes  nothing  for  granted,  you  see/^  said  Mr. 
Dolson,  "  not  one  thing  in  the  world." 

"  And  there  he  ^s  wrong/'  said  Safety-pin ;  "  men 
don't  want  to  hear  a  preacher  who  is  eternally  prove, 
prove,  proving,  and  arguing  their  very  hearts  out  of  them ; 
it's  absurd." 

^^But  is  it  not  better  to  argue  than  to  declaim?"  one 
of  the  dummies  softly  inquired  in  a  tone  that  sounded 
like  "  beg  your  pardon  for  speaking  !  "  The  Safety-pin 
took  no  notice  of  this  exciting  inquiry,  but  after  look- 
ing quizzically  at  the  questioner  turned  round  and  said, 
"  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  us  have  the  pleasure  of  your 
opinion." 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  said  I,  "you  have  spoken  very 
frankly  on  this  matter,  and  I  shall  not  commence  the 
game  of  ambiguity.  I  have  read  Mr.  Binney's  volume 
carefully,  and  I  am  bound  to  say  that  there  are  three 


Published  Sermons.  149 

things  wliicli  I  could  not  honestly  do  with  it :  (1)1  could 
not  put  it  into  the  hands  of  a  scoffer^  and  say  tJiis  is 
Christianity;  (2)  I  could  not  put  it  into  the  hands  of  an 
inquirer,  and  say  this  is  the  way  of  salvation;  (3)  I  could 
not  put  it  into  the  hands  of  a  student,  and  say  this  is  the 
method  of  sermonizing  which  I  advise  you  to  adopt.  On 
the  other  hand  there  are  three  things  which  I  could  most 
sincerely  and  cordially  do  with  it :  (1)  I  could  put  it  into 
the  hands  of  a  scoffer,  and  say.  See  how  the  strongest- 
minded  men  adore  what  you  deride ;  (2)  I  could  put  it 
into  the  hands  of  an  inquirer,  and  say.  Keep  this  book  to 
read  when  your  mind  is  in  the  best  condition  for  studying 
Divine  truth  ;  and  (3)  I  could  put  it  into  the  hands  of  any 
student,  and  say.  Learn  from  this  how  to  labour  in  com- 
posing a  sermon.  I  can't  deny  that  in  attempting  to 
form  an  impartial  judgment  of  this  book  I  have  consider- 
able difficulty  :  this  difficulty  arises  partly  from  my  ad- 
miration of  the  man  ;  I  cannot  keep  Mr.  Binney  himselt 
quite  out  of  view ;  I  see  him  and  hear  him,  and  instead 
of  helping  the  reading  this  rather  spoils  it,  because  Mr. 
Binney  cannot  be  printed;  all  the  way  through  I  say, 
^Where's  the  illuminating  smile?  Where  is  the  bold 
clear  tone  ?  Where  is  the  explanatory  shrug  ?  Where 
is  the  keen  steady  glance  ? '  And  this  kind  of  feeling 
damages  the  book ;  I  feel,  even  when  my  fancy  is  most 
vivid,  that  after  all  I  am  only  sitting  behind  the  preacher, 
and  I  want  to  go  round  and  look  him  in  the  face.''''  I 
paused  a  moment. 

'^  After  all,''  said  Mr.  Washington,  '^what  we  want 
most  is  preaching  that  goes  directly  to  the  life  of  our 
hearers;  we  have  but  a  short  time  to  preach,  and  they 
but   a  short   time  to   hear,    so    our   words    should    aim 


150      Ad  Clerimi :    Advices  to  a   Young  Preacher, 

always  at  the  one  point  of  saving  tlie  souls  of  tliem  that 
hear  us.'^ 

"But  ought  not  our  ministry  to  be  coloured  by  the 
times  in  which  we  live  ?  " 

"To  some  extent^  Mv.  Dolson ;  yet  I  confess  if  I  had 
my  ministry  to  begin  again  I  should  not  pay  so  much 
attention  in  the  pulpit  to  passing  controversies  as  I  have 
done.  I  should  preach  with  greater  clearness  and  fulness 
the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  for  that,  I  am  persuaded,  is  the 
doctrine  that  best  meets  the  whole  difficulty  of  life, — it  is 
the  answer  of  love  to  the  problem  of  sin,  and  when  men 
get  hold  of  it  they  are  unspeakably  glad ;  and  as  to  our 
criticism  upon  brethren  in  the  ministry  we  should  be  very 
careful  not  to  inflict  the  slightest  injury  on  their  reputa- 
tion, and  specially  not  to  inflict  the  slightest  injury  on 
their  feelings '^ 

"  Fair  criticism  is  quite  allowable,  you  know,^^  Safety- 
pin  defensively  interposed. 

"  I  allow  that,  and  so  long  as  it  is  confined  amongst 
brethren  it  may  do  good ;  even  fault-finding  may  be  edu- 
cational ;  what  I  insist  on  is  that  we  should  honour  our 
brethren  in  our  general  conversation  with  the  public, 
and  so  help  to  strengthen  and  extend  their  influence.''^ 

The  two  dummies  openly  applauded  this  view  of  the 
case ;  the  Safety-pin  was  silent. 

'^  Gentlemen,^-'  said  I,  "Mr.  Washington  has  said  for  me 
all  that  I  could  have  wished  to  say  for  myself.  I  do  think 
that  criticism  may  be  made  advantageous,  as  I  trust  in 
our  own  case  it  will  prove  to  be ;  at  the  same  time  it  may 
become  an  infinite  vexation  and  nuisance,  and  when  it 
becomes  derisive  of  good  men  it  must  be  a  grievous 
ofi'ence  in  the  sight  of  God.     We  have  been  speaking  to- 


Published  Sermons.  151 

day  of  brethren  [we  liad  spoken  of  others  whose  names 
are  withheld]^  who  have  most  conspicuous  and  influen- 
tial talents^  and  whose  work  in  the  church  is  valuable 
beyond  calculation;  no  doubt^  they  themselves  would 
gladly  increase  their  adaptation  to  services  which  some  of 
us  can  render  with  comparative  ease;  and  we,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  be  glad  to  possess  qualities  by  which 
those  brethren  are  so  highly  distinguished.  We  b*elong 
to  one  another,  we  cannot  do  without  one  another,  and 
therefore  we  should  mS^gnify  and  honour  one  another. 
Gentlemen,  with  these  just  sentiments  allow  me  to  dismiss 
you  to  your  several  engagements.''^  So  saying  I  left  the 
chair  amid  the  subdued  applause  of  my  honest  fellow- 
councillors. 


In  concluding  this  chapter  I  cannot  but  feel  that  some 
good  may  be  done  by  the  interlocutory  method  of  criti- 
cism. A  reviewer  may  find  it  difficult  to  put  all  his 
objections  and  all  his  commendations  in  his  own  name; 
he  may  feel  that  some  expression  of  adverse  opinion  is 
needful,  and  yet  may  shrink  from  the  responsibility  of 
giving  that  opinion  as  distinctively  his  own  :  it  may  be 
an  opinion  pretty  widely  entertained,  and  there  may  be 
considerable  force  in  it ;  at  the  same  time  the  reviewer 
may  be  unwilling  to  have  it  charged  directly  and  ex- 
clusively upon  himself  personally.  The  interlocutory 
method  may  be  so  adapted  as  to  give  a  very  impartial 
and  complete  view  of  any  book ;  there  may  be  such  a 
successful  blending  of  animadversion  and  commendation 
as  to  secure  for  the  reader  a  good  general  idea  of  the 
merits  of   the    work   under   review.     I   think   too  that 


•  152       Ad'  Cleritm :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

some  advantage  may  be  derived  by  authors  from  sucli 
remarks  as  are  made  by  a  man  like  Safety-pin  :  he  is, 
indeed,  often  reckless,  and  generally  destitute  of  regard 
for  the  feelings  of  any  writer,  yet  bis  exaggeration  will 
not  deprive  bis  criticisms  of  the  value  which  undoubtedly 
belongs  to  them,  whilst  it  will  protect  the  feeling  which 
would  be  lacerated  by  a  cooler  attack.  Mr.  Binney 
himsdlf  will  smile  at  the  manner  in  which  Safety-pin  lays 
hold  of  his  noble  volume,  yet  Mr.  Binney  will  consider 
whether  in  the  next  edition  he  will  not  insert  a  sermon 
or  two  which  will  show  that  his  genius  in  argument  is 
fully  equalled  by  his  power  of  pathos.  Better  still,  Mr. 
Binney  may  be  led  to  see  the  necessity  of  preparing  a 
second  volume  of  discourses, — sympathetic,  consolatory, 
and  affirmatively  (not  controversially)  evangelical.  Mr. 
Binney^s  first  volume  will  be  prized  in  the  college  and  in 
the  study;  Mr.  Binney^s  second  volume  will  be  a  favourite 
in  the  retreat  of  weakness,  sorrow,  and  penitence.  I 
cannot  allow  this  chapter  to  leave  my  hands  until  I  have 
'expressed  my  sorrow  that  at  length  Mr.  Binney  has 
felt  himself  called  upon  to  relinquish,  to  a  very  large 
extent,  the  great  pastoral  responsibilities  which  for  more 
than  forty  years  he  has  sustained  in  the  city  of  London. 
He  has  done  a  work  which  can  never  be  forgotten.  I 
cannot  but  think  it  a  happy  coincidence  that  the  ^lace 
will  be  removed  as  well  as  the  man.  A  feeble  succession 
in  the  Weigh  House  pastorate  would  be  intolerable : 
better  that  the  pulpit  and  the  preacher  should  go  down 
together,  leaving  a  memory  which  men  will  ^^never 
willingly  ]et  die.^' 


XT. 
SUBURBANISM. 

A  SUBURBAN"  pastorate !  my  friend  Mr.  Washington^ 
tliougli  too  robust  to  be  unsettled  by  idle  fancies,,  or 
seduced  into  self-indulgence  by  morbid  sentiment,  bad 
sigbed  for  sucb  a  pastorate  as  a  bappy  release  from  tbe 
clouded  and  restless  city  in  wbicb  be  bad  ministered  for 
twenty  years.  He  longed  to  escape  from  tbe  tumult  and 
roar  of  crowded  tborougbfares,  and  to  enjoy  tbe  silence 
and  contemplativeness  of  country  life — specially  of 
country  life  on  Sundays^  wben  tbe  quiet  of  rural  scenery 
is  busbed  into  a  deeper  calm  and  made  to  barmonize  witb 
tbe  peaceful  joy  wbicb  trembles  in  tbe  good  man^s  beart. 
I  did  not  wonder  at  bis  passion  for  tbe  country,  because 
be  bad  tbe  trained  ear  wbicb  quickly  bears  tbe  going  of 
God  in  tbe  patbs  of  nature,  and  tbe  penetratiug  eye 
wbicb  sees  more  tban  tbe  mere  letters  wbicb  are  written 
on  tbe  eartb  and  sky  ;  God  bad  made  bim  a  deep  inter- 
preter of  natural  signs,  and  given  bim  tbat  enricbing 
gift  of  amplification  and  ideal  development  by  wbicb 
poets  are  able  to  make  for  tbemselves  new  beavens 
and  a  new  eartb.  He  walked  as  a  free  man  in  tbe 
most  cbarming  baunts  of  nature;  be  knew  tbe  voices 
of  tbe  birds,  and  was  familiar  witb  tbe  names  of  many 
trees  and  plants ;  like  an  ardent  lover  be  never  tired 
of    tbe    sunny    scene,    and   lotig    after    pblegmatic    ob- 


154      Ad  Clerum  :    Advices  to  a  Young  Freaclier. 

servers  had  exhausted  its  attractions  some  new  blush 
caught  his  watchful  eyes^  or  some  winged  minstrel 
detained  him  to  listen  to  a  wordless  song.  That  such  a 
man  had  a  desire  for  a  suburban  pastorate  is  easily 
imaginable^  and  therefore^  though  too  reverent  to  force 
the  gate  which  separated  him  from  the  enchanting  land^ 
Mr.  Washington  would  gladly  have  assisted  a  higher 
hand  than  his  own  in  opening  it.  To  a  fancy  so  fertile 
as  his  there  were  many  urgent  allurements^ — the  church 
on  the  hill-side,  happy  families  trooping  from  all  direc- 
tions to  the  house  of  the  One  Father;  the  book  of 
revelation  illustrated  by  the  book  of  nature ;  opportunity 
for  self-introversion,  and  that  refinement  of  spiritual 
education  which  to  some  men  is  almost  impossible  amid 
scenes  which  incessantly  strain  their  activities; — all  these 
things  charmed  and  tempted  him,  and  at  length  brought 
him  into  bondage.  Why  not  ?  Is  it  not  hard  for  the 
poetic  mind  to  dismiss  the  idea  of  an  intermediate  heaven, 
— a  quiet  and  sunny  place  just  on  the  border-land  lying 
between  the  great  Shadow  and  the  greater  Light  ?  To 
such  a  mind  it  seems  a  long  way  to  heaven  from  the 
thronged  streets  through  which  Mammon  drives  its 
sweltering  votaries,  and  but  a  step  from  the  flowery  and 
fragrant  landscape  to  the  City  of  peace.  So  it  appeared 
to  Matthew  Washington,  and  he  desired  its  realization, 
though  he  had  not  lost  one  impulse  of  his  generous 
humanity;  his  pitying  heart  had  not  been  chilled  or 
shrivelled ;  so  sure  was  I  of  this  that  I  had  a  deep  con- 
viction that  he  would  carry  with  him  all  his  city  memories, 
and  that  they  would  very  probably  add  a  thorn  or  two 
to  the  tempting  rose  which  he  was  so  eager  to  pluck. 
In  talking  over  his  experiences  in  a  suburban  pastorate 


Suhurhanism,  155 

Mr.  Washington  gave  me  a  little  insiglit  into  tliat  inter- 
mediate heaven  of  whicb.  lie  liad  been  dreaming  for  many 
a  day ;  and  a«  it  is  quite  lawful  to  utter  everything  I 
heard  about  that  murky  and  deceitful  sky  I  shall  take 
the  public  into  my  confidence,  and  interpret  the  vision 
of  a  few  kindred  dreamers. 

Mr.  Washington  told  me  that  he  never  knew  what 
respectability  was  until  he  saw  it  in  the  suburbs  ;  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  its  presence  in  the  city,  doing  its 
business,  eating  its  public  dinner,  buying  its  pennyworth 
of  literature,  and  pleasantly  mixing  with  all  the  varieties 
of  personality  and  costume  which  go  to  the  making  up 
of  a  city  crowd ;  this  was  quite  familiar  to  him ;  but  when 
he  saw  respectability  away  from  its  mixed  and  softening 
surroundings,  when  its  decorations  were  prominently 
displayed,  and  it  seemed  to  have  written  out  its  claims 
after  the  manner  of  a  bill  of  particulars,  he  told  me  that 
his  first  sensation  was  that  of  intense  coldness, — he 
shivered  as  if  a  hand  of  ice  had  suddenly  touched  him, 
and  looked  round  for  the  old  kind  friendships  which  had 
often  made  him  glow  with  love  to  the  whole  world. 
When  the  broadcloth,  the  kid  gloves,  the  jewellery,  and 
fancy  decorations  are  more  prominent  than  the  man ; 
when  the  shell  is  exaggerated  to  a  maximum,  and  the 
soul  is  confined  to  a  small  dark  corner  ; — it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  guileless  and  earnest  men  are  conscious 
of  a  change  of  climate  which  threatens  their  very  exist- 
ence. No  respectability  of  culture,  of  nobleness,  of 
benevolence,  could  have  been  too  refined  or  too  con- 
spicuous for  Matthew  Washington;  he  would  never  have 
complained  of  this,  he  would  rather  have  revelled  and 
gloried  in  it  with  exceeding  appreciation  and  thaiikful- 


156      Ad  Cleriim :    Advices  to  a   Young  Freacliet . 

ness  ;  but  wlien  respectability  exhausted  itself  in  cabinet- 
making,  upholstery,  and  tailoring,  lie  shrunk  from  it  as 
from  an  effigy  which  he  had  mistaken  for  a  living  friend. 
In  the  suburb  which  Mr.  Washington  had  chosen  as  the 
scene  of  his  ministry  there  were  forests  of  mahogany, 
whole  potteries  of  elegant  ware,  and  nearly  every  house 
had  a  fancy  bazaar  of  its  own ;  to  his  unconventional 
mind  it  seemed  that  there  must  be  quite  a  dearth  of 
household  articles  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  that  his 
suburb  had  laid  itself  open  to  a  just  charge  of  voracious 
and  heartless  monopoly.  The  influence  of  this  oppressive 
respectability  was  felt  everywhere, — on  the  road,  in  the 
house,  at  school,  but  specially  and  cruelly  in  the  sanc- 
tuary. Mr.  Washington  was  very  earnest  in  his  manner 
of  speaking  about  this ;  it  was  the  chief  difficulty  of  his 
pastorate,  and  he  chafed  under  it  without  any  attempt  to 
conceal  his  pain.  He  felt  that  he  was  expected  to  deter- 
mine his  sermons  by  the  local  standard  of  respectability ; 
he  was  to  preach  quite  as  much  to  the  mahogany  as  to 
the  men ;  he  was  to  think  of  the  turkey  carpets  in  his 
exposition,  and  to  remember  the  porcelain  in  his  perora- 
tion ;  the  idol  was  constantly  before  him,  clipping  the 
wings  of  his  fancy,  cooling  the  fervour  of  his  passion, 
and  whispering  with  cold  breath,  "  Sir,  look  at  me,  and 
mind  your  manners  V  To  a  man  of  Washington's  make 
this  was  intolerable ;  he  sufi'ered  patiently  for  a  while, 
but  at  last  the  soul  made  a  way  for  itself  and  delivered  a 
startling  and  burning  testimony.  The  earnest  witness 
had  of  course  to  reap  the  consequences  of  his  temerity  : 
several  seatholders  protested,  a  few  besought  him  to  return 
to  his  ^^  beautiful '^  sermons,  and  an  indignant  boarding 
school  abandoned  the  desecrated  place  for  ever.     Were 


Suhurhanism.  157 

tliey  not  riglit  ?  Is  it  a  proper  thing  to  let  loose  a  whirl- 
wind upon  a  genteel  suburb  ?  Is  it  becoming  or  agree- 
able to  thunder  the  terrors  of  the  Lord  in  the  hearing  of 
ratepayers  who  keep  three  servants  each_,  and  sneer  at 
every  house  which  has  less  than  four  rooms  on  the  ground 
floor  ?  Here  was  Mr.  Washington's  error^  in  not  dis- 
criminating between  the  rough  and  worthless  creatures 
who  occupy  the  ungainly  city,  and  the  genteel  and  peer- 
less lives  that  keep  up  the  respectability  of  the  nation. 
His  hearers  required  doctrine  without  controversy,  a 
lavish  interspersion  of  rhyming  couplets,  and  a  loving 
assurance  that,  whatever  became  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
they  themselves  only  wanted  wings  to  become  beautiful 
and  happy  as  angels ;  this  would  have  met  their  modest 
expectations,  and  secured  their  well  regulated  applause. 
Instead  of  this  their  bold  and  ardent  pastor  committed  the 
unpardonable  impertinence  of  metaphorically  dismissing 
their  coachmen,  setting  fire  to  their  mahogany,  sending 
back  their  ornaments  to  the  goldsmith,  and  talking  to 
their  souls  the  pure  and  revolutionary  language  of  the 
gospel.  This  '^^ sort  of  thing'"'  would  have  done  admirably 
for  the  people  who  spend  their  Sundays  under  the  city 
cloud,  but  was  insufferable  to  the  human  nature  that 
kept  gigs  and  formed  intelligent  opinions  upon  the*  pre- 
vailing fashions.  "When  human  nature  keeps  a  gig  and 
is  sufiiciently  refined  to  discriminate  between  one  perfume 
and  another,  it  is  only  proper  that  its  theology  should 
be  at  least  abreast  of  its  civilization ;  the  ten  command- 
ments must  subdue  their  tone,  the  sermon  on  the  mount 
must  be  republished  with  emendations  of  every  alternate 
sentence,  and  the  New  Testament  must  be  bound  in 
vellum,  and  so  arranged  that  it  opens  most  easily  at  the 


158      Ad  ClGTum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

precious  promises ;  let  this  be  done,  and  tlie  world  will 
enter  into  rest.  The  Dean  of  Canterbury  in  the  year  of 
grace  18G9  asked,  "Why  is  not  an  attempt  made  to 
get  rid  of  religion?^'  and  the  bold  interrogator  added, 
"  Men  of  the  world  must  find  it  a  great  plague.  It  robs 
them  of  one  day  in  the  week,  as  far  as  outward  business 
is  concerned.  It  obliges  them  to  submit  to,  and  bear 
part  in,  a  great  deal  of  what  they  must  feel  to  be  atrocious 
humbug.'^  Let  the  Dean  talk  the  matter  over  with  Mr. 
Washington,  and  perhaps  he  will  learn  that  in  some 
suburbs  "  religion '^  has  been  most  genteelly  entombed, 
and  that  a  guard  has  been  set  lest  any  of  its  fanatical 
believers  should  attempt  to  take  it  away.  Men  "  get  rid 
of  religion ''  more  respectably  by  chloroform  than  by  a 
poleaxe. 

Pedantic  respectability  was  not  the  only  difficulty  with 
which  Mr.  Washington  had  to  contend.  Alongside  of  it, 
so  to  speak,  there  stood  a  grim  opponent  properly  called 
Sciolism.  Every  one  in  the  congregation  seemed  to  know 
a  little  about  some  out-of-the-way  subject ;  not  one  had 
drunk  deeply  at  the  Pierian  spring,  but  all  had  tasted  its 
delicious  waters.  Mr.  Washington's  church  became  like 
an  incipient  university,  wanting  nothing  but  genius  and 
learning  to  make  it  almost  moderately  respectable.  Every 
household  had  its  hobby,  and  every  child  felt  himself  at 
liberty  to  put  Mr.  Washington  through  "  the  larger  cate- 
chism with  proofs.'^  Mr.  Washington  thus  came  by  some 
strange  experiences,  not  without  instruction  to  the  rising 
ministry.  One  family,  for  example,  proud  of  a  garden 
thirteen  feet  by  seven,  had  undertaken  the  study  of 
botany,  and  had  duly  classified  a  guinea's  worth  of  plants 
into  Phanerogameae  and  Cryptogameae  j   Mr.  Washington 


Suhiirhanism.  159 

amiably  admired  the  happy  distribution,  and  tliongbt  lie 
was  coming  off  witli  flying  colours,  when  a  young  lady, 
in  lier  thirteenth  year,  utterly  humbled  him  by  asking 
whether  the  Prlmnla  farinosa  belonged  to  the  epiphytic 
or  parasitic  series  of  plants  ?  Of  course  the  young  lady 
herself  knew,  and  of  course  her  heart  struggled  between 
pity  and  contempt  as  she  looked  upon  her  uncultivated 
and  plebeian  pastor.  The  famous  "  schoolboy  ''  to  whom 
Lord  .  MaCxVULAY  so  often  and  so  flatteringly  refers  (un- 
known, however,  to  all  the  world  except  the  omnivorous 
baron  himself)  would  have  instantly  answered  the  trifling 
question  off  book,  but  the  unmannerly  Washington 
bluntly  replied  that  ke  knew  nothing  about  it.  The 
blunder  had  serious  consequences, — the  young*  lady 
could  never  comfortably  place  herself  under  the  guidance 
of  so  ignorant  a  pastor.  Another  family  had  taken  up 
the  science  of  geology  with  consuming  ardour.  The  im- 
portance of  a  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  the  earth  was 
paramount :  no  man  was  fit  to  live  who  was  not  deeply 
versed  in  palaeontology  and  mineralogy,  or  who  did  not 
know  the  difference  between  an  argillaceous  rock  and  a 
mammaliferous  crag.  This  was  the  noble  creed  of  the 
amateur  geologists;  from  morning  till  night  their  in- 
spiring talk  was  about  fossils,  specimens,  and  remains  ; 
every  mantelpiece  in  the  house  bore  some  sign  of 
felspars,  hornblendes,  micas,  and  zeolites;  every  child 
who  had  escaped  long  clothes  had  heard  something  of 
lamination,  interstratification,  and  lateral  variation ;  the 
proud  parents,  blinded  by  the  dazzling  genius  of  their 
offspring,  glowed  with  admiring  and  speechless  love  as 
they  heard  their  youngest  son  expatiate  upon  the  contem- 
poraneity of  beds  and  the  distinction  between  anticlinal 


160      Ad  Clenim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

and  synclinal  curves.  Poor  Mr.  Washington  was  '^  no- 
where ^'  on  this  deep  subject;  but  he  little  knew  the 
blankness  and  culpability  of  his  ignorance  until  a  young- 
ster, in  the  act  of  finishing  a  muffin,  asked  him  if  he 
could  tell  when  the  Jurassic  period  ended  and  the  Cre- 
taceous period  began  ;  the  union  of  such  splendid  intellect 
with  so  ordinary  and  useful  an  accomplishment,  while  it 
intoxicated  the  parents  with  delight,  filled  the  pastor  with 
humiliating  dismay.  Other  families  had  their  favourite 
pursuits, — astronomy,  ethnology,  history,  chemistry,  and 
even  ontology  in  all  its  abysmal  profundity  and  hazy  am- 
plitude ;  but  the  most  conspicuous  instance  of  scientific 
devotion  was  represented  by  a  little  company  of  three 
families,  numbering  on  an  average  six  members  each, 
associated  for  the  purpose  of  studying  music.  As  the 
improvement  of  congregational  psalmody  was  one  of  the 
subordinate  objects  of  the  association,  Mr.  Washington 
was  occasionally  invited  to  attend  the  meetings.  My 
reverend  friend  was  soon  distracted  by  subtle  discussions 
about  dispersed  harmony,  dominant  sevenths,  and  the 
percussion  of  dissonances, — the  last  being  forcibly  illus- 
trated by  two  eloquent  ladies.  Mr.  Washington  was,  of 
course,  delighted  with  the  rare  accomplishments  of  his 
people ;  he  said  so ;  said  so  with  hearty  and  generous 
emphasis  ;  said  so  again  and  again,  as  if  he  had  nothing 
else  to  say;  his  only  wonder  was  that  with  eighteen 
such  brilliant  singers  in  his  comparatively  small  congre- 
gation the  singing  was  not  of  a  higher  type ;  though  he 
was  bound  to  acknowledge,  in  common  fairness,  that 
since  the  association  was  founded  he  had  heard  of  several 
of  its  eighteen  members  singing  a  common  metre  tune  or 
two  in  a  genteelly  mumbling  sort   of  style  so  perfectly 


Siiburhanism.  161 

scientifac  and  refined  that  not  a  soul  could  hear  them  at 
the  distance  of  more  than  four  inches. 

With  all  this  pedantic  respectability  and  still  more 
pedantic  sciolism^  there  was,  of  course,  a  good  d^al  that 
was  unnatural  in  the  spirit  and  habits  of  the  people. 
Everything  was  done  by  rule ;  everybody  was  secretly 
endeavouring  to  find  out  "  the  correct  thing/^  and  was 
determined  to  do  it,  whatever  pain  it  might  involve.  To 
have  made  a  morning  call  before  three  o^clock  would 
have  degraded  the  caste  of  the  oldest  inhabitant ;  to  have 
shaken,  with  anything  like  cordiality,  the  hand  of  the 
most  intimate  friend,  would  have  damaged  the  most 
established  reputation ;  and  to  have  laughed  heartily 
would  have  blighted  the  fairest  prospects  of  life.  It  was 
of  course  forbidden  that  anything  even  remotely  approach- 
ing surprise  should  be  expressed ;  a  comet  was  to  be 
looked  at  in  a  most  composed  manner,  a  total  eclipse  of 
the  sun  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  commonplace  afiair,  no 
notice  was  to  be  taken  of  so  trifling  an  event  as  an  earth- 
quake; and  as  for  shipwrecks,  railway  collisions,  and 
colliery  explosions,  to  have  so  much  as  named  them 
would  have  plunged  the  excited  newsmonger  into  the 
depths  of  vulgarity.  This  frigidity  chilled  Mr.  Washing- 
ton to  the  core ;  it  chilled  his  sermons ;  and  worst  of  all 
it  chilled  his  prayers, — those  great  prayers,  so  rich,  so 
simple,  so  wise  [  He  still  had  the  solace  of  God^s  fair 
field  of  nature,  and  he  enjoyed  it  to  the  full.  Early  in 
the  morning  he  worshipped  in  the  waving  woods,  and 
carried  forward  the  sweet  song  of  birds  to  a  higher 
devotion ;  great  nature  was  kind  to  him  as  a  welcoming 
mother,  opening  many  a  hidden  door  to  his  appreciative 
eyes,  and  adding  many  a  modest  and  pleasant  acquaint- 


162       Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

ance  to  tlie  long  list  of  liis  quiet  friendships  within  the 
circle  of  the  wood.  As  a  thinker  who  worked  rather  from 
the  spiritual  centre  than  from  the  base  of  information, 
his  field  rambles  were  very  helpful  to  him ;  his  mind  was 
quieted  and  toned  by  the  most  potent  yet  gentle  influ- 
ences, and  he  gathered  in  those  lonely  rambles  the  vivid 
and  truthful  images  which  give  to  his  writings  the 
living  charm  which  allures  the  busiest  reader  to  their 
close. 

Yes ;  we  owe  Matthew  Washington's  writings  very 
largely  to  his  suburbanism.  When  he  was  in  the  city  he 
wrote  hurriedly,  merely  hinting  at  his  subjects  and  never 
doing  himself  justice  either  as  a  thinker  or  as  a  writer. 
It  was  enough  for  him  to  throw  out  an  idea  in  its  boldest 
form ;  he  almost  despised  artistic  garniture  and  studious 
elaboration, — there  was  the  idea,  what  more  could  people 
possibly  require  ?  The  consequence  was  that  a  certain 
class  of  sectarian  reviewers  handled  him  very  roughly ; 
they  described  his  style  as  jagged,  abrupt,  almost  coarse, 
and  one  reviewer  so  far  patronised  him  as  to  say  '^  Mr. 
Washington  is  improving ;  '^  how  these  words  made  me 
tingle  and  burn  with  anger  !  Washington  himself  merely 
smiled  at  them :  "  Why,  sir,''  said  I,  "  it  were  better  to 
be  cursed  outright  than  to  have  such  dead  praise  !  "  I 
cannot  forget  the  beaming  of  his  face  as  he  listened  to 
this  burst  of  youthful  enthusiasm, — '^  It  is  being  cursed 
outright,"  he  answered,  ''  if  you  did  but  understand  it  ; 
the  writer  of  these  words  means  to  sink  me  with  a  heavy 
compliment.-"  I  did  not  comprehend  the  sentiment  then, 
but  it  has  since  come  to  have  a  clearer  meaning.  When 
Mr.  Washington  went  into  the  suburbs  he  pleasantly 
said  he  would  "  try  to  spin  better ; ''  it  was  like  him  tc 


Siihurhanism,,  163 

speak  thus  moclestly  ;  there  was  resolution  in  the  words, 
though  they  were  so  simple  and  unpretending ;  how  far 
they  were  fulfilled  is  known  only  to  those  who  were  mado 
acquainted  with  the  extent  of  his  anonymous  writings. 
I  never  knew  any  man^s  style  undergo  a  greater  change ; 
whore  it  was  short,  edged,  and  rasping,  it  became  flowing, 
persuasive,  and  conciliatory,  and  where  once  it  would  have 
but  pointed  a  directing  finger  it  now  revelled  exultantly 
over  the  whole  space  which  the  writer's  thought  was  in- 
tended to  occupy.  In  addition  to  many  essays  upon 
some  of  the  deepest  problems  in  theology,  he  indulged  in 
repeated  excursions  into  more  cheerful  districts  of  litera- 
ture, and  enriched  the  serials  of  the  day  with  many  an 
airy  dream  and  tuneful  lyric,  of  whose  authorship  the 
noisy  world  never  knew.  He  has  listened  to  praises  of 
his  writings  by  men  who  never  would  have  looked  at  them 
had  they  known  their  author,  but  not  once  did  he  yield 
to  the  pleasant  temptation  to  say  '^  I  wrote  them ;  "  he 
heard  the  verdict,  and  his  reward  for  years  of  hard 
schooling  was  enough  to  satisfy  him.  I  wanted  to 
publish  his  claims  as  an  author,  but  he  reminded  me  that 
silence  is  older  than  speech,  and  that  fame  is  better  for 
the  dead  than  the  living.  I  disputed  this,  and  fliittered 
myself  that  my  logic  was  better  than  his. 

"  Why,  sir,^'  said  I,  '^  is  not  fame  but  another  name 
for  influence  ?  and  is  not  every  one  bound  to  increase  his 
influence  to  the  farthest  possible  extent  V 

"  Possibly  so,^^  he  replied ;  ^^  but  where  an  author^s 
discovered  personality  might  substitute  aversion  for 
applause,  he  might  diminish  his  influence  by  attempting 
to  augment  it.^^ 

*^  On  the  other  hand,"  I  ventured  to  rejoin,  'Ms  it  not 

M  2 


164      Ad  Gleriim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Treacher. 

probable  that  in  many  instances  tlie  force  of  prejudice 
might  be  broken_,  and  men  be  brought  to  own  their 
mistake  and  repair  it  ?  '* 

^^Now  and  again  such  a  conversion  wonld  probably 
occur/'  he  admitted ;  "  but  taking  a  wide  view  of  life,  I 
believe  that  it  is  better  not  to  risk  the  influence  of  the 
thought  by  disclosing  too  early  the  personality  of  the 
thinker ;  that  is,  if  his  personality  be  in  any  way  likely 
to  excite  prejudice.  What  does  a  moment's  popularity 
amount  to  ?  Let  a  man  give  his  name  at  last,  if  it  so 
please  him,  for  death  is  the  best  answer  to  prejudice ;  a 
stern  and  terrible  answer  I  admit." 

With  these  views  Matthew  Washington  continued  his 
literary  vizor  to  the  end.  Never  was  workman  more 
punctually  at  his  post  than  was  Washington  at  his  desk ; 
he  wrote  with  his  heart  as  well  as  with  his  hands ;  and 
though  I  was  honoured  with  his  confidence  for  years  I 
never  heard  him  say  that  any  paragraph  of  his  own  fully 
satisfied  his  critical  judgment ;  he  could  have  improved  a 
word,  or  strengthened  a  sentence,  or  burnished  an  image, 
or  filed  off"  an  asperity,  or  done  something  which  perhaps 
nobody  else  ever  thought  was  in  any  degree  necessary  or 
desirable.  My  fear  was  that  his  suburbanism  was  making 
him  too  finical,  and  that  for  the  old  abrupt  vigour  he 
would  substitute  an  insipid  refinement ;  happily  my  fear 
proved  to  be  unfounded,  for  though  the  change  in  his 
style  of  expression  was  most  marked  the  pungency  and 
strength  of  his  thought  escaped  deterioration.  His 
literary  pursuits  saved  him  from  the  melancholy  which 
upon  such  a  temperament  as  his  would  have  been  super- 
induced by  suburbanism ;  he  had  a  secret  world  all  to 
himself,   a  world  bright    with   stars  and  beautiful  with 


Suhurhanism,  165 

many  flowers^  and  in  tMs  world  lie  found  bread  to  eat  of 
whicli  his  suburban  friends  did  not  know.  Yet  tliere  was 
a  grief  darkening  and  depressing  the  good  man's  heart; 
and  that  grief  arose  from  the  fact  that  his  people  looked 
upon  suburbanism  as  a  providential  exoneration  from  a 
good  deal  of  the  hard  work  which  falls  to  the  lot  of  what 
may  be  called  city  Christianity.  The  j^oor,  being  out  of 
sight,  were  to  a  large  extent  also  out  of  mind ;  Sunday- 
school  service  was  unknown ;  tract  distribution  would 
have  been  an  elaborate  insult ;  open  air  preaching  would 
have  brought  eternal  disgrace  upon  the  whole  suburb ; 
and  any  other  form  of  work  would  have  ruined  the  repu- 
tation of  its  projector.  Religion  soon  becomes  a  super- 
stition when  it  ceases  to  be  a  practice ;  and  in  proportion 
as  the  second  commandment  is  neglected  the  first  com- 
mandment becomes  the  occasion  of  the  most  corrupt 
selfishness, — necessarily  so,  for  reverence  without  be- 
nevolence destroys  the  universality  of  relationship  which 
stimulates  and  strengthens  the  best  afiections  of  human 
nature.  To  do  the  simplest  work  is  to  save  religion  from 
the  most  aggravated  misanthropy.  For  a  man  to  light 
his  last  candle  and  set  it  in  the  window  of  his  cot,  with 
the  hope  that  its  ray  may  catch  the  eager  eye  of  the 
struggling  mariner  who  would  give  the  world  for  light, 
is  to  please  God  more  than  to  perform  the  most  stately 
ceremony  as  if  the  earth  were  no  longer  the  abode  of 
suffering  humanity.  True,  we  must  not  forsake  the 
temple ;  but,  equally  true,  we  must  not  neglect  the  dis- 
abled man  who  lies  daily  at  its  most  beautiful  gate.  It  is 
not  denied  that  the  picture  of  suburbanism  now  drawn  is 
purposely  exaggerated,  but  it  is  solemnly  affirmed  that 
there  is  enough  of  reality  in  it  to   demand  the  serious 


166      Ad  Glerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

C3iisideratioii  of  all  wlio  wisli  to  do  the  work  whicli  Jesus 
Christ  undertook  throughout  the  whole  of  His  ministry. 
No  doubt  the  city  is  less  pleasant  than  the  green  country; 
no  doubt  the  elegant  sanctuary  is  more  agreeable  than 
the  great  meeting-house  which  stands  in  the  thoroughfare 
of  an  ill  kept  town ;  no  doubt  there  is  a  powerful  charm 
in  select  society  :  all  this  is  freely  admitted ;  but  when 
the  whole  case  is  viewed  from  the  Cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ;  I  cannot  but  hope  that  there  will  be  a  nearly 
complete  inversion  of  the  effects  of  suburbanism ;  surely 
the  happy  day  will  come  when  the  members  of  Christian 
families  will  say  to  one  another,  as  regularly  as  the  dawn- 
ing of  the  sabbath,  '^  We  have  enjoyed  during  the  week 
many  of  the  sweet  and  healthful  blessings  of  the  country; 
let  us  go  to-day  to  visit  in  Christ^s  name  and  for  Christ^s 
good  purposes  the  great  city,  that  we  may  teach  little 
children,  that  we  may  relieve  and  cheer  the  poor,  and 
that  we  may  support  the  ministers  who  witness  for  Christ 
under  many  discouragements.''^  Such  a  holy  resolution 
would  add  keener  relish  to  the  enjoyments  of  the  whole 
week,  it  would  gladden  many  cheerless  lives  and  give 
robustness  to  the  finest  graces  of  the  soul.  Would  not 
such  a  course  be  troublesome  ?  Not  if  lovingly  pursued 
for  Christ's  sake.  Would  it  not  be  expensive  ?  A  few 
less  luxuries,  a  diamond  ring  or  two,  half  a  dozen  gay 
parties  fewer,  would  go  a  long  way  towards  the  annual 
cost ;  but  what  of  the  annual,  the  incessant  compensation? 
What  enlargement  of  mind,  what  satisfaction  of  heart, 
what  thankfulness,  what  peaceful  joy  !  Undoubtedly 
there  would  be  trouble  and  expense;  bat  are  not  these 
among  the  chief  modern  tests  of  our  love  for  the  Saviour? 
Aforetime  men  risked  their  liberties  and  even  their  lives 


Suhirhanism.  167 

for  Clirist^s  sake,  and  now  we  murmur  if  we  have  to 
endure  tlie  slightest  inconvenience  in  His  cause  !  We 
may  have  left  our  poor  brother  in  the  city,  but  he  is  our 
brother  still  and  we  are  his  keeper  !  Parents  have  taken 
away  their  children  from  the  sad  sights  of  the  great  city, 
but  their  children  may  be  weaker  men  as  a  consequence 
of  this  fancied  privilege  :  great  men  are  trained  by  great 
discipline;  the  soul  must  have  a  great  school :  the  con- 
servatory may  be  full  of  beauty,  but  it  is  in  the  great 
storm-rocked  forests  that  men  find  the  timber  for  the 
temples  of  the  land  and  the  navies  of  the  world. 


Xll. 

DR.   JOHN   CAMPBELL. 

The  circumstances  under  whicli  I  first  met  Dr.  Campbell 
were  likely  to  make  a  vivid  impression  upon  tlie  memory. 
By  his  invitation  I  went  to  London  to  assist  him  in  his 
ministerial  work,  and  on  reaching  my  temporary  home  in 
Hackney  was  informed  that  the  Doctor  wished  to  see  me 
precisely  at  seven  o^clock  the  following  evening  in  his 
own  house.  At  that  time  (1852)  he  was  the  popular  and 
influential  editor  of  the  British  Banner,  which  was  pub- 
lished at  69,  Fleet  Street.  In  order  to  graduate  my 
approach  to  what  was  then,  in  my  estimation,  a  formid- 
able presence,  I  made  it  my  business  to  spend  part  of  the 
following  morning  in  walkmg  backward  and  forward  in 
front  of  the  Banner  window,  in  the  hope  of  catching  a 
glimpse  of  the  notorious  denominational  editor, — so  little, 
alas,  did  I  then  know  of  editors  and  their  windows  !  The 
window  might  have  been  opaque  for  any  good  it  did  me ; 
no  editor,  no  publisher,  no  clerk,  was  to  be  seen, — no- 
thing, in  fact,  was  to  be  seen  but  the  last  number  of  the 
British  Banner  laid  out  at  its  full  length,  having,  to  my 
eye,  quite  a  defiant  aspect.  I  looked,  and  wondered,  and 
looked  again,  and  again  wondered ;  what  if  the  editor 
should  come  out  and  I  should  see  him  without  his  being 
aware  of  that  circumstance  !  Yery  foolish,  no  doubt ;  yet 
such  was  my  plight ;  to  my  rustic  simplicity  the  second 


Dr.  John  Campbell.  169 

great  fact  in  creation  was  Dr.  Campbell^  and  my  rustic 
timidity  quite  staggered  under  fhe  probability  that  there 
might  be  only  a  sheet  of  plate  glass  between  us.  A  youth 
who  had  been  born  within  hearing  of  Bow  bells  would 
probably  have  felt  a  contemptuous  pity  for  such  back- 
wardnesSj  for  what  could  he  know  of  life  among  the  hills, 
where  the  proportions  of  supposed  greatness  were  exag- 
gerated partly  by  distance  and  partly  by  denominational 
pride  ?  Be  that  as  it  may,  my  preliminary  survey  brought 
me  nothing  but  disappointment.  In  the  evening  I  set 
out  for  Dr.  CampbelFs  residence;  but,  being  a  total 
stranger  in  London,  I  had  the  misfortune  of  getting  on 
the  wrong  track,  and  landing,  not  at  Tabernacle  House, 
but  at  Tottenham  Court  Chapel, — something  like  three 
miles  from  my  proper  destination.  While  standing  there 
lost  in  such  wonder  as  only  a  youth  from  the  far-away 
hills  can  know  anything  about — a  half  stupid  wonder 
which  made  me  feel  as  if  every  cabman  knew  my  mis- 
take, and  every  policeman  thought  that  I  was  meditating 
a  deep  and  dangerous  design — a  taunting  clock  pitilessly 
struck  seven.  There  was  a  malevolent  mockery  in  the 
deliberateness  with  which  it  struck,  as  if  the  whole  me- 
tropolis were  sneering  maliciously  at  the  provinces.  In 
less  than  half  an  hour,  however,  by  the  aid  of  a  cabman 
who  seemed  to  know  by  cruel  instinct  that  I  had  come 
from  that  barbaric  region  which  the  cockney  knows  as 
"  the  kentry,''^  I  stood,  or  rather  trembled,  on  the  steps 
of  Tabernacle  House.  I  am  not  sure  whether  the  right 
hand  had  forgot  its  cunning,  but  I  have  a  distinct  recol- 
lection that  my  tongue  would  gladly  have  cleaved  to  the 
roof  of  my  mouth.  Bow-bells  will  say  again  that  this 
was  very  silly,  but  Bow-bells  cannot  know  the  disadvan- 


170      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

tages  of  being  born  in  '^  tlie  kentry/^  On  ringing  Dr. 
CampbelPs  bell,  I  felt  as  if  I  had.  bronglit  upon  myself  a 
storm  wliich.  miglit  end  in  my  ruin ;  it  did  ring ;  I  heard 
the  tingling  through  the  door  and  through  the  windows, 
and  all  round  about  me, — oh  !  how  it  rung.  Poe  must  not 
have  heard  it  when  he  wrote  of  the  bells,  for  if  he  had 
heard  it  another  verse  would  certainly  have  suggested 
itself  on  the  spot.  In  half  a  minute  my  hand  was  in  Dr. 
CampbelFs,  and  there  was  comfort  in  the  warm  grip  ! 
Commend  me  to  a  man  who  has  a  hearty  way  of  shaking 
hands,  and  save  me  from  cold  bones  and  palms  of  steel. 
Dr.  Campbell  shook  hands  in  a  most  welcoming  manner, 
and  so  did  much  to  recall  my  ease.  Look  at  him  I 
Broad,  erect,  with  abundant  grey  hair  standing  up  as  if 
it  had  been  suddenly  startled  into  disorder,  and  with 
linen  enough  around- his  neck  to  dress  half  a  denomina- 
tion. What  a  collar  !  At  the  back  of  the  head  it  rose  as 
high  as  the  organ  of  philoprogcnitiveness,  on  the  cheeks 
it  stood  up  like  a  protest  against  the  ears,  and  in  front 
pointed  itself  against  society  with  a  desperation  that 
would  have  been  alarming  if  it  had  not  been  comical.  I 
had  seen  collars  like  it  in  engravings,  but  until  that  mo- 
ment had  seen  nothing  like  it  in  actual  linen.  Then  the 
voice, — what  nervous  young  man  from  the  mountains 
could  be  quite  easy  under  such  gruff  tones  ?  Its  very 
gentleness  was  a  kind  of  muffled  roar ;  what  then  must 
it  have  been  when  sounding  in  full  compass  !  There  was 
joositively  a  sound  of  doom  in  it.  Who  could  safely  con- 
tradict what  it  declared  ?  In  the  Doctor's  hand  there 
was  a  long  strip  of  paper,  such  as  I  had  never  seen;  I 
did  not  know  what  it  was,  but  afterwards  found  that  it 
was  the  proof  of  a  newspaper  article — in  other  words,  a 


Vr.  John  Caonjphell.  171 

long,  tliick^  rougli  rope  for  tlie  scourging  of  any  man  wlio 
ventured  to  have  a  will  of  his  own.  That  was  the  begin- 
ning of  my  acquaintance  with  newspaper  proof  sheets^ — 
excellent  material  no  doubt^  provided  always  that  they 
are  in  excellent  hands.  I  could  not  but  notice  a  peculiar 
habit  of  breathing  in  my  reverend  host;  that  operation 
seemed  to  be  conducted  entirely  through  the  mouth,  and 
appeared  to  have  been  reduced  to  a  system  of  powerful 
gasping,  by  which  he  was  constantly  declaring  that  he 
was  not  in  the  least  asthmatic,  notwithstanding  the 
plainest  evidence  to  the  contrary.  Happily  I  soon  forgot 
everything  in  the  gentle  smile,  which  quite  enlightened 
and  softened  the  rugged  Roman  face  and  almost  over- 
flowed the  snowy  collar.  Dr.  CampbelFs  friends  will 
often  think  of  his  characteristic  smile,  how  it  played  upon 
his  shaggy  eyebrows,  wreathed  his  Caesar-like  lips  into 
dignified  complacency,  kindled  a  genial  glow  on  his 
broad  brow,  and  lost  itself  in  the  forest  of  his  upright 
and  redundant  hair.  Does  not  everybody's  smile  do 
pretty  much  the  same  thing  ?  Grant  that,  if  you  please, 
and  still  there  will  remain  a  peculiarity  of  expression 
v/hich  distinguished  Dr.  Campbell's  smile  from  every 
other  which  I  have  seen. 

"  What  age  are  you,  sir  ?  "  the  Doctor  inquired  in  his 
blandest  manner,  laying  down  the  proof  sheet,  and  breath- 
ing in  the  way  described. 

"  Twenty-two,  sir.-" 

"  Ah  ! ''  (gasping  and  smiling)  "  you  are  very  young, 
very  young;  and  though,  sir,  this  is  not  the  day  for 
boys,''  (smiling  very  kindly)  *^  we  must  have  youthful 
energy;  yes,  yes"  (gasping  as  if  punctuating).  "Well, 
sir,  and  what  texts  have  you  for  to-morrow  ?  " 


172      Ad  Glermn :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

^'  In  tlie  mornings  sir,  I  think  of  preaching  from  Heb. 
xii.  18  :  '  Ye  are  not  come  unto  the  mount  that  might  be 
touched/  etc. ;  and  in  the  evening  from  Luke  ix.  9  :  *  John 
have  I  beheaded,  but  who  is  this  of  whom  I  hear  such 
things  ? ' " 

"  Just  so,  sir,  just  so,^'  the  Doctor  replied  with  an  omi- 
nous gasp,  ^^very  good;  but  now  let  me  see,  to-morrow 
is  Easter  Sunday,  and  some  reference  should  be  made  to 
the  resurrection ;  I  tell  you  therefore  what  we  shall  do. 
I  shall  read  a  portion  of  Scripture  bearing  upon  it  and 
offer  a  running  comment ;  I  shall  then  offer  prayer,  and 
leave  you  about  forty  minutes  for  your  sermon.''^  Having 
said  so,  he  smiled,  as  if  the  brightest  of  ideas  had  been 
propounded. 

The  idea  did  not  lay  hold  of  me  in  the  same  happy 
manner,  but  there  was  doom  in  the  voice !  Secretly  I 
wished  that  the  running  comment  could  be  postponed 
until  some  other  Easter  Sunday,  but  dare  not  have  said 
so  for  the  world.  My  own  sermon  might,  I  thought  as  I 
returned  to  Hackney,  pass  muster  if  it  went  by  itself,  but 
it  will  utterly  fail  under  the  strain  of  contrast.  My  own 
dream  was  a  running  comment,  in  a  sense  that  is  not  exe- 
getical,  and  in  fear  and  trembling  I  appeared  on  the 
following  morning  to  undergo  the  culminating  trial  of  my 
life.  AVhen  we  met  in  the  vestry,  the  first  time  I  had 
seen  the  Doctor  in  daylight,  I  thought  I  had  never  looked 
upon  a  more  intensely  masculine  and  powerful  face.  There 
was  not  one  weak  line  in  it,  one  soft  and  plastic  spot  to 
which  a  young  man  from  '^  the  kentry ''  might  trust  in 
the  event  of  failure ;  all  was  solidity,  massiveness,  force ; 
and  in  the  daylight  I  thought  I  saw  even  in  the  smile  itself 
a  curious  wrinkle  which  looked  a  good  deal  like  a  mark 


Dr.  John  CamjjheU.  173 

of  interrogation.  Certainly  it  did  not  look  so  credulous 
as  it  did  tlie  niglit  before ;  there  was  evident  inquiry  in 
it,  and,  as  it  appeared  to  my  terror,  a  toucli  of  prophetic 
success  in  the  matter  of  the  running  comment.  The  fore- 
head did  not  convey  to  me  a  strongly  favourable  impres- 
sion of  the  Doctor^s  benevolence ;  but  the  whole  head  by 
its  magnitude,  its  broad  base  line,  and  its  firm  set,  showed 
that  its  owner  was  a  man  of  no  little  intellectual  capacity. 
The  eye  was  small,  deep- set,  not  piercing,  but  calmly  ob- 
servant. I  never  saw  the  faintest  sign  of  fire  in  it  j  it 
seemed  to  be  a  merely  receptive  eye,  taking  minute  and 
general  surveys,  but  never  telegraphing  to  others  any 
hint  of  the  surveyor's  impressions  and  reflections.  One 
can  sometimes  catch  a  revelation  in  other  men's  eyes, 
even  when  the  men  themselves  are  doing  their  best  to 
keep  their  secret  thoughts  ;  but  Dr.  Campbell's  eye  never 
showed  a  sign  that  betrayed  his  feeling.  The  nose  was  of 
the  boldest  Roman  type,  extremely  large  and  most  clearly 
outlined,  the  nostrils  being  particularly  well  curved  and 
expressive.  Not  one  man  in  ten  thousand  has  such  a 
nose ;  if  it  was  not  really  as  good  as  ten  talents,  it  was 
certainly  an  excellent  fortune  to  begin  the  world  with. 
Behind  so  vast  and  energetic  a  nose  there  might  have  been 
volumes  of  martial  poetry,  several  military  romances,  and 
at  least  ten  victorious  battles.  And  such  lips, — lips* 
enough  and  to  spare  !  They  overhung,  they  revelled  in 
strength,  they  shut  like  iron  doors  !  As  for  the  mouth, 
it  was  not  a  mere  mouth,  it  was  nothing  short  of  a  cavern ; 
and  when  a  laugh  came  out  of  it  the  sound  was  not  the 
most  refined  which  has  ever  been  heard  among  men. 
There  he  stood  on  that  memorable  Easter  Sunday  morn- 
ing, primed  with  a  running  comment ;  and  there  was  I, 


17i      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a   Young  Vrcadicr, 

rustic,  hesitant,  wonder-struck,  witli  a  few  slieets  of  paper 
in  my  pocket,  wkicli  seemed  to  me  to  be  tlie  most  unsatis- 
factory slieets  tkat  ever  were  written.  Friends  at  home  . 
had  seen  them,  or  heard  their  words,  and  with  too  partial 
love  had  spoken  well  of  them ;  but  on  that  Easter  Sun- 
day morning  the  very  ink  had  almost  faded  out,  and  the 
orthodoxy  appeared  to  have  got  a  heretical  twist.  To  my 
great  alarm,  the  Doctor  decided  that  we  should  go  into 
the  pulpit  together ;  and  having  taken  several  papers  in 
his  left  hand,  away  he  went,  his  right  arm  swinging  ener- 
getically and  striking  back  his  coat  with  regular  blows ; 
he  might  have  been  going  to  fight  a  battle  instead  of  giv- 
ing a  running  comment ;  his  port  evidently  meant  war  to 
any  one  who  might  have  come  in  his  way.  Having  opened 
the  service  very  solemnly,  he  gave  his  proposed  comment 
very  much  to  my  satisfaction.  Without  any  attempt  at 
verbal  criticism,  there  was  an  intelligent  apprehension  of 
the  idea,  and  an  evident  desire  to  bring  the  hearers  into 
sympathy  with  the  historic  spirit  of  the  day  of  triumph. 
There  was  no  attempt  at  style,  no  critical  choice  of  words, 
no  aim  at  rhetcric;  but  there  was  a  very  solemn  and 
urgent  earnestness  which  well  befitted  the  occasion ;  most 
of  the,  sentences  were  short,  some  of  them  coldly  glitter- 
ing, all  of  them  practical,  and  throughout  the  whole  a 
reverence  mingled  with  joy  which  became  those  who  were 
in  imagination  standing  beside  the  empty  tomb  of  their 
Lord.  Dr.  Cam^Dbell  did  not  strike  me,  either  on  that 
occasion  or  any  other,  as  a  pulpit  orator  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  term.  In  the  pulpit  he  was  very  formal, 
quite  stifi"  in  fact,  as  if  he  had  suddenly  become  all  collar 
together ;  he  never  fell  into  ease,  or  conciliatory  famili' 
arity,   but   always   stood  aloof  as   an  imperial,  an  unap* 


Dr.  John  CamphcU,  175 

proacTiable  presence.  What  soul  would  ever  dare  to  go 
to  such  a  man  in  the  night  of  its  trouble  and  wonder  and 
weakness  ?  His  pulpit,  a  very  volcano  in  the  days  of 
Wliitefield,  seemed  to  be  a  mountain  of  ice,  and  his  words 
like  storms  of  hail.  This  was  the  impression  which  stran- 
gers would  often  take,  but  I  am  bound  to  say  that  such 
an  impression  did  not  do  Dr.  Campbell  full  justice.  He 
could  be  tender  and  sympathetic;  after  the  hail  could 
come  the  dew ;  out  of  the  terrible  mouth  could  come  the 
gentle  and  healing  word.  Probably  he  knew  nothing  of 
the  agonies  which  torment  many  speculative  and  sensitive 
souls ;  very  likely  he  thought  the  Assembly's  Catechism 
furnished  ^^a  sovereign  balm  for  every  wound;''  and 
possibly  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  those  adven- 
turous spirits  that  prefer  flying  to  walking ;  still,  within 
the  limits  of  technical  theology  he  was  no  unskilful  phy- 
sician. In  the  pulpit  he  was  lofty  and  stern ;  in  the 
house  he  was  familiar  and  gracious.  His  platform  ap- 
pearances were  often  very  eff"ective.  He  had  a  happy 
word  for  everybody,  and  an  agile  way  of  escaping  diffi- 
culties ;  sometimes  he  half  threatened  to  be  humorous, 
and  though  he  never  could  sharpen  a  sentence  into  wit, 
yet  he  could  nod  his  grey  plume  in  a  manner  which  indi- 
cated that  only  the  restraints  of  grace  kept  him  from  the 
dissipation  of  jocularity.  There  was  not  much  coherence 
in  his  speeches ;  they  were  like  baskets  full  of  fragments 
— a  bit  for  everybody,  not  excepting  his  critics  and 
opponents. 

From  the  Easter  Sunday  in  question  Dr.  Campbell  and 
I  worked  a  good  deal  together,  and  my  association  with 
him  enables  me  to  say  something  about  his  character  and 
habits  which  no  one  else  has  the  means  of  saying.     His 


176      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

metliod  of  directing  my  own  labours  was  liigHy  cliarac- 
teristiCj  while  tlie  spirit  in  whicli  lie  gave  his  advice  was 
often  that  of  a  truly  Christian  father.  To  pronounce  him 
a  perfect  man  would  be  to  ignore  many  most  distressing 
evidences  of  imperfection;  to  pronounce  him  always  a 
just  man  would  be  to  wink  at  some  of  the  gravest  and 
crudest  injustice  which  disfigures  the  honour  of  public 
life;  yet  at  the  particular  time  of  which  I  write  there 
was  enough  about  him  to  inspire  confidence  and  beget  a 
very  cordial  love.  His  advice  was  too  mature  to  be 
treated  with  levity^  and  his  generous  consideration  dis- 
armed a  very  rigorous  criticism.  The  general  impression 
which  he  made  upon  me  was  that,,  in  all  cases  requiring 
sound  judgment,  he  was  capable  of  rendering  very  valu- 
able service ;  though  if  any  prejudice  should  be  at  work 
in  his  mind  he  could  never  rise  above  it  and  speak  with 
the  serenity  and  candour  of  impartiality. 

A  sketch  of  the  Doctor's  manner  of  directing  my  work 
as  his  assistant  will  show  one  view  of  his  various  life. 
Suppose  it  to  be  Saturday  morning,  and  probably  I  shall 
receive  a  note  to  this  effect :  '^  My  dear  young  friend,  tea 
at  five  o^clock,  after  which  the  preachers  will  go  about 
their  business.  Yours  cordially,  J.  C.'''  Half  an  hour  is 
spent  at  the  tea  table  in  the  pleasantest  manner,  every- 
body is  happy;  the  Doctor  addresses  minute  inquiries  to 
each  guest  as  to  health  and  pursuits,  and  hits  each  case 
so  exactly  that  the  guest  supposes  himself  to  have  been 
enjoying  the  Doctor's  consideration  for  some  time  past, — 
a  very  innocent  delusion  on  the  part  of  the  guest,  yet 
showing  to  an  observer  the  great  advantage  to  a  pastor  if 
he  can  only  remember  every  toothache,  every  cough,  and 
every  fever,  which  may  have  afflicted  his   congregation. 


Dr.  John  Gamphell.  177 

This  was  tlie  Doctor's  forte.  If  fhere  were  twenty  people 
at  the  table^  lie  could  have  spoken  to  each  some  word 
indicative  of  strong  individual  interest^  and  left  the  im- 
pression upon  unsuspecting  minds  that  when  all  other 
friends  failed  he  would  be  their  friend  for  ever. 

"  Now,  sir,  let  us  leave  the  ladies  and  betake  ourselves 
to  the  study/'  the  Doctor  would  remark,  smiling  upon 
the  ladies  in  a  manner  which  made  our  exit  very  easy. 

"  Well,  sir,  read  your  morning's  sermon  if  you  please, 
and  let  us  see  what  can  be  done."  I  would  then  read 
the  morning's  sermon  from  beginning  to  end.  On  con- 
cluding it,  the  Doctor  would  offer  his  criticism. 

"  Too  long,  sir,  I  am  afraid.  Suppose  you  cut  down 
the  first  division,  say  one  half.  Yes,  do  that."  Or  again, 
"  Too  many  heads>  sir,  too  many  by  far.  I  don't  like  to 
hear  a  sermon  that  is  broken  up  into  a  thousand  fragments. 
A  good  many  of  the  heads  may  be  given  without  formal 
specification." 

"Did  not  many  of  the  aid  preachers  use  a  good  many 
heads,  sir  ?" 

'^They  did,  but  then  they  ivere  old  preachers,  and  the 
manners  of  the  people  were  different.  We  must  study 
what  will  be  most  effective  and  useful." 

On  another  occasion  the  Doctor  would  say  :  "  The 
morning  text  is  hardly  suitable  for  you ;  come  now,  sup- 
pose we  try  something  else  :  let  me  see ;  yes  ;  take  so  and 
so  (naming  another  text),  and  let  me  hear  what  you  can 
make  of  it  in  the  morning." 

"  But  there 's  no  time,  sir  !  " 

'^  No  time !  So,  so !  Never  say  that,  sir ;  time 
enough  !  Come  now,  let  me  break  the  bones  of  the  text 
for  you  ;  in  the  first  place  there  is,"   etc.     And  so  he 

N 


178      Ad  Cleriim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

would  go  tbrongli  the  leading  ideas  of  the  passage,  and 
wish  me  to  write  according  to  his  exposition,  never  for  a 
moment  allowing  me  to  escape  on  the  plea  that  there  was 
not  time  to  do  what  he  proposed. 

"  Now,  sir,  will  yon  proceed  with  the  evening 
sermon/^ 

The  evening  sermon  was  read  accordingly.  ^^  I  am  not 
quite  sure,  sir,  that  you  are  right  in  your  exegesis ;  let 
me  see.^^  The  original  would  then  be  appealed  to,  and 
one  or  two  of  the  best  critical  authorities  consulted.  On 
all  occasions  the  grammar,  the  rhetoric,  and  the  theology 
of  the  sermons  which  had  been  prepared  were  freely 
criticised,  so  that  I  received  the  benefit  of  a  life-timers 
education  and  thirty  years^  varied  ministerial  experience. 

The  sermons  having  been  disposed  of,  I  was  next 
called  upon  to  read  my  literary  diary.  Every  Saturday 
the  Doctor  gave  me  theological,  critical,  or  biographical 
works  which  I  was  expected  to  read,  and  on  the  following 
week  I  had  to  present  him  with  a  careful  analysis  of  their 
contents,  with  criticisms  upon  the  argument  and  style  of 
each  author.  The  thing  which  struck  me  most  was  the 
Doctor's  clear  recollection  of  books  which  he  had  read 
twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  a  recollection  which  was  shown 
not  only  by  precise  reference  but  occasionally  by  almost 
literal  quotation.  I  was  glad  of  this,  as  I  had  the  advan- 
tage of  it,  not  only  as  a  moral  check  but  as  an  intellectual 
stimulus. 

When  the  sermons  and  the  diary  had  received  due 
attention,  a  part  of  the  evening's  engagement  came  which 
I  can  seldom  recall  without  tender  emotion.  We  knelt 
together  in  the  study,  and  the  Doctor  offered  prayer 
which  was  truly  the  "preparation  before  the  sabbath."     I 


I)r,  John  Cawi^hell.  179 

never  lieard  any  one  so  gifted  in  private  prayer.  Tlie 
solemnity^  tlie  simplicity,  the  fervour,  were  deeply  im- 
pressive. The  special  supplications  which  he  never 
failed  to  offer  for  myself  were  most  pathetic,  and  so 
powerfully  did  he  plead  for  a  blessing  that  often  my  heart 
was  enlarged  in  holy  and  loving  desire  towards  God  as  if 
the  answer  had  been  given  "whiles  he  was  praying/^ 
However  much  business  the  Doctor  had  on  hand  the 
prayer  was  never  omitted;  and  each  prayer  was  as  new 
as  if  the  spirit  of  devotion  was  never  exhausted. 

So  ended  the  Saturday  evening  in  Dr.  Campbell^s 
study,  and  I  returned  to  my  own  to  give  effect  as  far  as 
possible  to  his  suggestions.  On  the  sabbath  morning 
there  was  always  a  smile  for  me,  and  some  word  of 
encouragement  in  relation  to  the  day.  On  sabbath 
evenings  we  spent  many  a  happy  hour  in  the  Tabernacle 
House,  reviewing  the  public  engagements,  relating  inci- 
dents which  illustrated  the  doctrine  which  had  been 
taught,  or  listening  to  the  Doctor's  reminiscences  of  pas- 
toral life.  The  Doctor,  though  ever  genial,  never  allowed 
us  to  sink  into  frivolity;  in  his  most  relaxed  moods  ho 
was  always  so  self-restrained  as  to  be  able,  without  violent 
transition,  to  advert  to  the  most  serious  subjects  ;  and  even 
in  his  liveliest  moments,  when  he  was  indulging  his  most 
humorous  sallies,  he  was  .quoting  poetry,  epigrams,  or 
biographic  incidents,  all  of  which  gave  his  lightest  con- 
versation a  rare  and  most  graphic  instructiveness. 

On  f^e  Monday  morning  after  my  first  Sunday  at  the 
Tabernacle  I  went  by  invitation  to  the  editorial  office  of 
the  British  Banner — a  dark  dirty  room,  literally  crammed 
with  books  and  papers  of  the  most  miscellaneous  de- 
scription.    Near  the  window  sat  the  editor  at  his  desk, 

N  2 


180       Ad  Clerum:    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

and  before  liim  lay  a  scrap  of  paper  on  wliicli  lie  had 
jotted  wliat  lie  called  a  few  "  catch- words/^  On  the  other 
side  of  the  table  sat  one  of  the  Doctor^ s  shorthand 
writers.  The  process  of  dictating  a  leading  article  was 
about  to  begin,  and  the  Doctor  having  warned  me  to  be 
"as  still  as  a  monse/^  the  editorial  steam  was  tnrned  on. 
A  look  at  the  scrap  of  paper,  and  then  a  paragraph; 
another  look,  and  another  paragraph;  the  great  voice 
sounding,  and  the  grey  plumage  of  the  noble  head  nod- 
ding, in  the  most  characteristic  manner.  Sentence  after 
sentence,  paragraph  after  paragraph,  now  very  epigram- 
matic and  anon  bordering  on  the  rhetorical;  here  very 
sensible,  and  there  nearly  bombastic ;  one  sentence 
striking  like  a  dart,  and  another  stunning  like  the  blow 
of  a  hammer.  As  soon  as  the  first  leading  article  was 
finished  the  bell  was  tingled  and  reporter  No.  two  came 
to  the  desk.  The  process  was  repeated;  with  a  John- 
sonian copiousness  and  often  with  a  Johnsonian  precision, 
the  editor  proceeded.  Was  it  a  personal  article  ?  Then 
let  the  victim  be  pulled  bone  from  bone,  and  limb  from 
limb,  and  let  him  be  pounded  in  a  mortar,  and  let  the 
pounded  victim  be  thrown  to  the  dogs.  Was  it  a  church 
article  ?  Then  let  great  principles  be  asserted,  let  "  the 
law  and  the  testimony  ''  speak,  and  whoever  opposes,  let 
him  fall.  Was  it  a  favourable  article  ?  Then  let  all 
superlatives  be  called  to  the  front,  and  summon  every 
word  that  can  be  pressed  into  the  service  of  praise ;  then 
the  delineation  will  stand  thus — unrivalled,  matchless, 
magnificent,  stupendous,  overwhelming.  Was  it  a  con- 
demnatory article?  Then  reverse  the  process,  and  the 
caserwill  stand  thus — presumptuous,  outrageous,  menda- 
cious, flagitious,  infamous,  and  diabolical.     It  may  easily 


D)\  John  Gamphell.  181 

be  conceived  tliat  as  a  young  man  I  listened  to  this 
literary  Niagara  witli  some  alarm_,  and  not  until  I  liad 
learned  that  the  Doctor  did  not  really  mean  all  that 
he  said  did  I  feel  in  any  measure  composed  as  a 
listener.  When  I  say  that  he  did  not  really  mean  it,  the 
expression  must  not  be  misunderstood.  He  himself  was 
personally  sincere,  else  he  would  not  have  braved  and 
even  defied  public  opinion  as  he  did ;  but  he  did  not  ac- 
cept the  great  words  in  the  sense  in  which  they  would  be 
generally  understood.  For  example,  where  an  ordinary 
man  would  express  simple  regret  Dr.  Campbell  would 
express  the  uttermost  anguish  and  horror  of  soul ;  where 
such  a  man  would  say  that  he  did  not  approve  of  a  certain 
course  Dr.  Campbell  would  characterise  that  course  as 
one  which  outraged  alike  reason  and  propriety,  and  rose 
to  the  point  of  shameless  and  scandalous  mendacity ; 
where  the  said  ordinary  man  would  nod  approbation 
Dr.  Campbell  would  pronounce  the  commended  object  as 
the  most  magnificent  and  illustrious  display  of  genius  on 
which  he  had  ever  fixed  his  admiring  and  enraptured 
attention.  Both  the  ordinary  man  and  Dr.  Campbell 
would  mean  pretty  much  the  same  thing,  only  Dr.  Camp- 
bell always  carried  a  longer  ladder  than  was  necessary  to 
reach  the  object  he  had  in  view.  Dr.  Johnson  speaks  of 
somebody  laying  a  forty-pounder  to  the  door  of  a  pigsty, 
and  certainly  Dr.  Campbell  would  not  have  hesitated  to 
have  turned  an  Armstrong  gun  upon  a  dove-cote  or  a 
dog-kennel.  His  weapons  were  very  often  out  of  propor- 
tion to  the  battle ;  he  often  overlaid  himself  with  instru- 
ments and  armour,  and  so  came  in  many  cases  to  have 
the  appearance  of  defending  a  garden  wicket  with  a  park 
of  artillery.     There  was  nothing  ordinary  in  Dr.  Camp- 


1S2      Ad  Gleriim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Freacher. 

belFs  world.  All  the  geese  were  swaiis,  all  the  swans 
were  eagles,  all  the  eagles  were  seraphs  in  disguise.  It 
was  a  very  stupendous  world.  Some  of  the  Grerman 
horse-trainers  are  said  to  be  in  the  habit  of  putting 
highly  magnifying  spectacles  upon  young  horses_,  that 
they,  being  deceived  as  to  the  magnitude  of  the  stones 
upon  the  street,  may  acquire  a  high  step.  By  some 
means  the  same  kind  of  spectacles  had  been  put  upon 
Dr.  CampbelFs  nose ;  so  pebbles  became  paving  stones, 
and  the  paving  stones  were  the  hugest  boulders.  He 
believed  it  most  sincerely,  and  all  his  public  course  was 
more  or  less  affected  by  the  strange  infatuation.  Hence 
we  find  that  if  any  speculative  brother  broached  a  novel 
theory,  we  were,  according  to  Dr.  Campbell,  about  to  be 
lost  in  German  mysticism  \  if  any  man  hinted  that  the 
Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  was  strict,  the  spirit  of 
scepticism  was  coming  in  like  a  flood ;  if  the  pope  wrote 
an  extra  letter,  England  was  about  to  be  carried  away  as 
with  a  whirlwind ! 

The  habit  of  dictating  his  articles,  instead  of  patiently 
and  critically  writing  them  with  his  own  hand,  while  it 
enabled  the  Doctor  to  get  through  an  immense  amount  of 
work,  exposed  him  to  very  great  peril.  He  often  became 
rhetorical  when  he  should  have  been  judicial,  and  in 
rounding  a  period  he  was  apt  to  be  more  careful  about 
the  curvature  of  the  sentence  than  the  absolute  justness 
of  the  sentiment.  Had  he  done  less  he  would  have  done 
more.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  while  the  works 
which  were  written  without  the  aid  of  an  amanuensis 
contain  many  most  vigorous  and  even  beautiful  para- 
graphs, replete  with  intelligence  and  exact  in  expression, 
many  of  his  dictated  productions  are  little  better  than 


Br,  John  Campbell  183 

waste  paper.  Undoubtedly  tliere  are  sentences,  and  not 
a  few  of  them,  even  in  these  productions,  which  are  as 
accurate  as  they  are  vigorous ;  yet  the  productions  as  a 
whole  are  unworthy  of  the  occasionally  eloquent  and 
graphic  style  of  ''  The  Martyr  of  Erromanga/^  For  cor- 
respondence and  brief  notices  of  unimportant  books  dic- 
tation may  serve  every  purpose ;  but  close;  correct,  and 
polished  composition  demands  most  patient  and  critical 
elaboration.  But  how  could  such  elaboration  possibly 
be  given  to  all  the  works  which  Dr.  Campbell  undertook  ? 
Think  of  one  man  editing  two  weekly  newspapers  and 
two  monthly  magazines,  besides  conducting  a  voluminous 
correspondence  and  occasionally  preaching,  and  address- 
ing public  meetings  !  Nor  was  this  all :  in  the  midst  of 
such  engagements  he  wrote  a  commentary  on  the  Bible  ! 
That  all  this  could  have  been  done  by  his  own  hand  is 
simply  a  physical  impossibility;  hence  the  truth  of  a  remark 
which  he  once  made  to  me  in  his  own  house :  throwing 
himself  into  his  arm-chair  he  said,  "  I  have  done  more 
work  to-day  than  any  six  men  could  have  done  without 
the  aid  of  shorthand. ^^  That  he  soon  felt  the  limit  of 
his  merely  manual  power  is  pretty  evident  from  a  para- 
graph written  in  the  Christian  Witness  eighteen  months 
after  he  undertook  the  editorship.  *^  Experience,"  he 
wrote,  "has  already  taught  us  that  most,  if  not  all,  our 
labours  in  connection  with  committees,  public  business, 
and  public  meetings  appertaining  to  religion  and  hu- 
manity, with  special  services  of  all  sorts  both  in  town 
and  country,  must  be  abandoned.  Nor  is  this  all ;  regular 
courses  of  general  study  must  henceforth  subside  into 
general  excursions,  and  all  further  attempts  at  solid 
authorship   be  at    an    end."     When   these    words    were 


184      Ad  Glerum:  Advices  to  a  Young  Freaclicr, 

wi:itteii  Dr.  Campbell  was  doing  tlie  full  work  of  the 
pastorate;  yet  even  allowing  for  that^  it  is  almost  incre- 
dible that  he  could  have  added  so  much  more  literary 
work  to  the  editorship  of  a  magazine  which  taxed  so 
heavily  his  time  and  strength^— indeed  it  would  have 
been  absolutely  impossible  to  have  done  it^  apart  from  the 
assistance  of  shorthand.  But  with  a  free  use  of  shorthand 
came  the  most  of  his  public  mistakes,  which  were  neither 
few  nor  trivial.  Of  course  it  is  an  easy  thing  for  a  man 
who  to  strong  feeling  adds  an  ample  command  of  lan- 
guage, to  sit  in  his  editorial  chair  and  fulminate  against 
*  men  and  things  in  general.  There  is  a  pleasant  excite- 
ment about  the  exercise ;  the  use  of  shorthand  relieves 
the  physical  labour,  and  what  is  saved  in  fatigue  of  body 
is  added  to  zest  of  mind;  oratorical  excitement  too  in- 
flames the  editorial  mind,  and  gives  a  keen  interest  to  all 
combative  engagements.  So  long  as  the  language  is 
vigorous,  who  cares  for  the  absolute  equity  of  the  senti- 
ment ?  If  the  sentences  fall  rhythmically  it  is  of  small 
consequence  what  may  be  thought  of  the  doctrine.  This 
is  the  peril  of  dictation ;  the  dictator  finds  it  difficult  to 
stop,  the  shorthand  writer  is  waiting,  the  printers  are 
crowding  round  the  door,  and  the  article  must  be  finished. 
Under  such  circumstances  many  an  ill  selected  word  and 
many  an  ill  fashioned  sentence  are  allowed,  to  meet  the 
exigency  of  the  moment.  Beyond  most  men  Dr.  Camp- 
bell was  in  danger  from  literary  dictation.  His  sensi- 
bilities were  strong  ;  his  turn  of  expression  was  naturally 
exaggerated;  his  prejudices  were  often  unreasoned  and 
generally  very  obstinate ;  so  that  to  be  hurried  where  he 
ought  to  have  been  calm,  to  be  compelled  to  produce 
where  he  ouo^ht  to  have  had  leisure  for  the  most  critical 


Dr.  John  Camfhell.  ]  85 

revision,  was  to  be  put  in  the  way  of  a  most  urgent 
and  flattering  temptation.  It  must  ever  be  much  the 
same  where  any  man  has  to  write  by  quantity,  where 
work  is  weighed  by  avoirdupois  and  not  by  troy,  or 
where  square  yards  of  type  are  of  more  importance  than 
literal  exactness.  In  this  way  I  find  it  less  difficult, 
knowing  Dr.  Campbell  as  I  did,  to  account  for  many  of 
the  extravagances  which  justly  offended  those  who 
knew  the  man  only  by  his  fervid  and  often  bombastic 
leaders. 

One  circumstance  I  remember  well,  as  illustrating  not 
only  the  perils  of  dictation  but  the  method  of  Dr.  Camp- 
belFs  reviewing.  A  book  called  ^^The  Eclipse  of  Faith  ^' 
was  sent  to  the  Banner  for  review ;  and  the  Doctor  boldly 
began  his  dictation  with  the  sentence, — '^  Another  dart 
from  the  quiver  of  the  enemy  !  ^^  That  book  I  need  not 
say  is  one  of  the  ablest  defences  of  Christianity  which  has 
appeared  during  the  century,  yet  it  was  so  described  by 
the  rhetorical  dictator.  When  he  came  home  on  the 
evening  of  the  day  on  which  that  review  was  published  I 
was  in  his  parlour,  and  well  I  remember  him  throwing 
himself  into  his  arm-chair  and  exclaiming,  "  I  have  made 
the  greatest  mistake  ever  I  made  in  my  life  !  I  would 
have  recalled  the  whole  edition  of  to-day^s  Banner  if  I 
could." 

Others  however  must  be  left  to  offer  judgment  upon 
Dr.  CampbelFs  public  position  and  services ;  my  object 
is  rather  to  cite  such  of  his  opinions  and  exhortations  as 
were  addressed  to  myself  as  a  young  preacher.  In  my 
youthful  devotion  I  found  time  to  write  nearly  all  that 
my  Mentor  ever  said  to  me  respecting  the  ministry;  and 
as  many  of  his  remarks  have  more  than  a  personal  interest 


18(3       Ad  Clerum  :  Aduices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

tliey  may  bo  useful  to  otlier  students  and  young  ministers. 
Take  a  sample  : — • 

"When  I  was  a  young  minister  a  wet  Sunday  was  a  terrible 
annoyance ;  I  would  mourn  that,  after  having  laboured  in 
preparation  for  a  whole  week,  the  chapel  would  be  half 
filled.  Age  has  taught  me  this  lesson — to  preach  as  willingly 
to  two  hundred  as  to  two  thousand,  knowing  that  men 
are  accountable  as  individuals,  and  not  in  their  aggregate 
capacity.  Pride  is  not  entirely  wanting,  when  a  preacher 
can  only  minister  to  crowds.  Always  remember  that  one 
soul  saved  is  enough  to  repay  the  most  laborious  preparation. 

Be  careful  in  rebuking  ill  heJiaviour  from  the  pulpit ;  it 
is  difficult  sometimes  to  restrain  indignation,  yet  when  an 
angry  word  has  been  spoken  it  cannot  be  recalled ;  there  is 
therefore  great  necessity  for  exercising  discretion.  In  some 
cases  a  rebuke  has  been  effectively  administered  by  aged 
ministers — their  seniority  has  been  the  best  possible  shield 
from  retaliation  ;  a  word  from  their  lips  would  be  useful, 
when  the  very  same  expression  from  the  mouth  of  a  junior 
would  be  considered  ill  judged  and  worse  than  wasted. 
Private  expostulation  is  more  commendable  than  pulpit 
correction. 

In  the  course  of  a  lengthened  ministry  I  have  met  with 
some  mighty  nuisances  in  the  form  of  one-eyed  men,  one-legged 
individuals  ;  for  example,  there  are  those  who  will  liberally 
subpcribe  to  local  missions  who  would  not  give  a  coin  to  the 
support  of  foreign  missions ;  they  will  patronise  the  Bible 
Society,  but  have  nothing  to  do  with  Sunday-schools ;  they 
will  be  superintendents  or  nothing.  They  have  their  own 
peculiar  notions  as  to  Christian  duty  and  propriety,  and 
to  those  they  cling  with  unyielding  tenacity.  It  is  impossible 
for  young  ministers  to  work  harmoniously  with  such  one- 
armed   men ;   and   not   only  so,  but   they  frequently   prove 


l)r.  John  CamijheU.  187 

sources  of  intense  annoyance  to  all  who  are  earnest- 
hearted  and  willing  to  do  anything  that  goodness  and  truth 
may  universally  prevail. 

All  young  ministers  should  abstain  from  occupying  much 
of  their  time  in  political  or  other  controversy.  Their  business 
is  to  preach  the- gospel.  As  a  father,  I  would  entreat  you 
to  devote  the  first  ten  years  of  your  ministerial  life  to  the 
pulpit.  There  will  be  numerous  calls  upon  you  to  advocate 
this  and  the  other  good  cause ;  but  if  you  spend  your  energies 
to  any  considerable  extent  in  platform  work,  your  preparation 
for  the  pulpit  will  be  scanty  and  unsatisfactory.  Nothing 
great  will  be  accomplished  without  singleness  of  aim ;  there 
are  indeed  men  who  appear  equal  to  any  amount  of  work, 
however  diverse  ;  yet  the  majority  of  preachers  are  not  so : 
therefore,  whatever  may  be  the  exceptions,  the  general 
rule  should  stand  thus, — devote  supreme  attention  to  sabbath 
duty,  and  if  you  have  any  leisure  time  you  can  devote  it 
to  other  good  purposes.  After  ten  years'  laborious  study  you 
will  be  surprised  to  find  how  comparatively  easy  your  work 
will  then  become ;  much  however  depends  on  the  habits  you 
form  in  the  early  part  of  your  public  life. 

Dr.  Campbeirs  public  prayers  were  unusually  rich,  and 
impressive.  On  the  subject  of  prayer  in  public^  lie  said 
to  me  : — 

My  custom  for  many  years  has  been  to  ponder  on  a 
sabbath  morning  such  facts  concerning  the  fellowship  as 
might  have  come  to  my  knowledge  during  the  course  of  the 
week ;  I  have  taken  a  slip  of  paper  and  jotted  down  the 
several  items,  e.g.-. — Are  any  sick  ?  Is  any  member  suiFering 
from  sorrow,  relative  or  personal  ?  Has  any  death  occurred  ? 
What  is  there  in  the  sabbath-school  demanding  special 
notice  ?  Are  there  any  inquiring  the  way  of  salvation  ?  By 
asking  those  questions  you  will  be  in  a  position  to  meet  the" 


188      Ad  Clcriim  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier. 

wants  of  tlie  people  in  an  acceptable  manner.  Be  assured 
that  if  you  wish  the  congregation  to  follow  the  line  of 
petition  you  must  touch  every  heart,  and  as  far  as  practicable 
allude  to  every  case ;  in  this  way,  the  devotional  exercise 
becomes  thoroughly  congregational.  It  is  lamentable  to  observe 
how  much  of  our  petitionary  agency  is  mere  vapid  formality, 
performed  in  so  perfunctory  a  manner  that  the  congregation 
feels  quite  relieved  when  the  prayer  is  concluded.  It  has 
frequently  happened  that  men  have  been  brought  to  Grod  in 
the  act  of  public  prayer — their  case  has  been  so  strikingly 
marked  out,  and  mercy  so  fervently'  implored,  that  they  have 
been  brought  to  consideration  and  penitence.  It  must  of 
necessity  arouse  attention,  when  a  professed  worshipper  can 
say,  "  that  's  my  case,^'  while  the  minister  is  leading  the 
devotion  ;  and  having  excited  attention,  there  is  every  prospect 
of  creating  sympathy.  Observe,  we  must  have  praye7%  not  talk  ; 
the  difference  is  essential.  True  prayer  is  the  language  of 
the  heart;  it  is  simple,  earnest,  scriptural.  To  succeed  in 
public  petition  I  know  nothing  so  useful  as  a  previous  read- 
ing of  the  devotional  portions  of  the  Bible.  There  is  no 
liturgy  equal  to  many  parts  of  David's  psalms — there  you 
have  the  man's  heart  poured  out  in  the  fulness  of  simplicity. 
In  order  to  preserve  variety  in  prayer — for  it  is  as  necessary  in 
prayer  as  in  preaching — endeavour  to  ground  the  main  line  on 
the  scripture  just  read  ;  it  will  be  easy  to  bring  in  congrega- 
tional thanks  and  necessities  on  this  as  a  basis.  Never  try 
to  be  eloquent,  flowery,  or  fine  in  prayer ;  be  lowly,  reverent, 
and  simple.  Avoid  all  eccentric  expression — all  trite,  smart 
sayings,  as  incompatible  with  the  spirit  of  acceptable  devotion. 
"When  man  communes  with  Grod  he  should  be  utterly  abased 
and  filled  with  self-distrust ;  for  only  as  man  sees  himself 
as  nothing,  and  Grod  as  everything,  will  he  learn  to  worship 
"  with  reverence  and  godly  fear."  Some  men  have  a  peculiar 
habit  of  quoting  scraps  of  hymns  and  even  couplets  from 
poems  of  another  order,  while  engaged  in  prayer.  Abjure  this 
practice :  it  is  unbecoming  and  unnatural  for  a  beggar  to  ask 


Dr.  Johi  Camphell.  189 

an  alms  in  rhyme,  men  would  consider  it  so  were  the  case  their 
own.  On  every  ground  therefore,  sing  your  hymns  and  praij 
jouv  prayers,  for  this  is  the  path  of  nature  and  propriety. 

In  the  course  of  a  lengthened  pastorate  Dr.  Campbell 
did  a  good  deal  of  Bible-class  work ;  his  opinion  as 
to  the  value  and  conduct  of  such  service  will  be  approved 
by  many  pastors  : — 

Some  men  are  pre-eminently  adapted  to  this  kind  of 
work.  Men  who  could  never  occupy  any  distinguished 
pulpit  position  have  made  their  way  most  effectively  by 
devoting  supreme  attention  to  Bible  classes.  The  talent 
required  in  these  separate  departments  is  quite  of  a  different 
nature ;  the  eloquent  and  impassioned  orator  seldom  makes  a 
calm  and  judicious  teacher.  He  is  too  rhetorical  to  meet  the 
wants  of  inquiring  minds  on  the  fundamental  outlines  of 
Christian  theology.  The  same  remark  is  conversely  true 
respecting  the  mere  teacher;  he  can  break  the  truth  into 
pieces,  so  to  speak,  suited  to  the  capacities  of  all,  but  in  the 
pulpit  is  destitute  of  that  synthetic  power  which  is  necessary 
for  rapid  combination,  so  as  to  produce  forcible  and  lasting 
impression  on  the  minds  of  a  popular  auditory.  Supposing 
however  that  a  minister  is  adapted  for  class  instruction, 
much  of  his  success  will  depend  on  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
conducted.  As  a  rule,  all  controversial  subjects  should  be 
avoided,  and  attention  entirely  confined  to  standard  doctrine ; 
when  once  young  men  begin  to  dispute  and  cavil  there  is  no 
saying  where  the  matter  will  end ;  let  them  therefore  in  the 
first  instance  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  "  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints,"  and  afterwards  they  will  be  in  a 
position  to  encounter  the  various  forms  of  error  everywhere 
so  abundant.  Free  inquiry  should  by  no  means  be  dis- 
countenanced ;  at  the  same  time  reason  and  experience  concur 
in  affirming  that  all  men  should  be  conversant  with  certain 
first  principles  before  they  venture  to  appear  in  the  arena  of 


190      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Treacher. 

intellectual  or  theological  contest}.  To  enunciate  and  develop 
those  first  principles  is  one  of  the  leading  objects  of  every 
well  conducted  Bible  class.  So  far  as  the  students  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  vt^ell  to  cause  tJiem  to  speak  as  much  as  the  case 
may  require ;  such  a  course  will  deepen  individual  interest, 
and  facilitate  correct  and  fluent  expression.  "When  a  man 
feels  that  he  is  expected  to  do  something  he  is  quickened  into 
action,  he  thus  begins  to  feel  his  own  deficiencies  and 
manifest  anxiety  for  their  supply.  On  the  contrary,  when  he 
knows  that  the  interest  of  the  class  depends  entirely  on  the 
conductor,  he  sinks  into  a  kind  of  intellectual  passivity, 
assenting  to  everything  and  examining  nothing.  A  portion  of 
Scripture — say,  one  of  the  epistles — should  be  chosen  ;  a 
given  number  of  verses  should  be  announced  as  the  subject 
for  the  ensuing  week  ;  every  member  should  then  be  separately 
interrogated  as  to  the  scope  and  design  of  the  passage; 
it  being  understood  that  the  verses  are  read  in  rotation,  and 
that  each  reader  has  the  priority  of  expression  as  to  the 
signification  of  the  verse  read.  In  this  manner  an  interest  is 
excited  and  sustained,  which  would  not  attend  any  individual 
exposition,  however  apt  or  luminous.  It  is  also  an  excellent 
practice  for  each  student  periodically  to  prepare  an  essay  on 
some  scriptural  subject.  By  this  means  he  is  instructed 
in  composition,  and  is  affording  to  others  an  opportunity 
,of  exercising  their  critical  skill.  There  is  one  difiiculty 
attending  this  matter,  viz.,  when  the  choice  of  a  subject  is  left 
to  the  class  an  amount  of  hesitation  is  felt  which  prevents 
definite  action ;  to  the  end  that  this  difiiculty  be  obviated,  it 
is  well  for  the  minister  himself  to  announce  a  theme  and 
request  an  essay  or  essays  upon  it.  This  plan  has  been  found 
to  work  admirably  in  the  higher  class  of  biblical  tuition. 

There  is  another  object  never  to  be  forgotten,  viz.,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  service  the  conductor  should  detain  one  or 
more  of  the  attendants,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  private 
spiritual  conversation.  This  may  be  easily  done,  by  stating 
that  he  wishes  a  brief  interview  in  the  vestry  ;   persons  who 


Br.  John  Camjyhell.  191 

would  slirink  from  clo.^e  religious  scrutiny  in  the  company 
of  others  will  feel  quite  at  liberty  to  converse  on  personal 
godliness  under  such  circumstances  as  now  defined.  The 
conversion  of  the  soul  is  the  great  end  of  all  pastoral  labour, 
therefore  every  possible  means  should  be  employed  for 
realizing  this  momentous  object.  In  the  pulpit  you  can  only 
speak  in  generalities,  even  in  your  most  fervent  and  searching 
appeals;  but  when  you  are  speaking  to  on\j  one  individual 
there  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  identity.  In  the  sanctuary 
men  hear  for  others,  but  in  this  close  address  the  individual 
is  compelled  to  hear  for  himself.  Never  shrink  from  this 
duty ;  sometimes  it  calls  for  much  fortitude  and  self-denial, 
but  be  assured  the  reward  is  most  abundant.  The  person 
will  feel  that  his  soul  is  cared  for;  he  will  see  that  whatever 
may  have  been  his  own  carelessness  there  is  at  least  one 
who  has  ventured  in  faith  and  love  to  introduce  the  most 
important  of  subjects.  The  most  hardened  have  been  subdued 
in  this  manner;  the  man  who  would  charge  a  minister  with 
preacliing  for  money  may  be  undeceived  by  that  same  minister 
daring  to  arrest  his  attention  on  the  matter  of  his  personal 
salvation. 

No  man  values  the  pulpit  more  than  I  do  as  an  instru- 
mentality in  the  propagation  of  religious  principle.  At 
the  same  time  there  are  certain  adjuncts  which  are  incon- 
ceivably important  if  not  absolutely  essential.  Among  these 
the  Bible  class  is  worthy  of  high  rank.  It  affords  oppor- 
tunities for  conversing  upon  subjects  which  could  not  be 
handled  with  equal  advantage  in  the  public  ministry.  The 
voice  of  inquiry  may  be  heard,  and  the  response  of  wisdom  be 
returned.  Wherever  the  exercises  of  the  pulpit  are  sustained 
with  vigour  the  Bible  class  will  be  found  powerfully  instru- 
mental for  good;  and  where  pulpit  duties  are  inefficiently 
discharged  something  is  requisite  to  supplement  their  defici- 
encies and  compensate  for  their  weakness.  Devote  therefore 
your  best  energies  to  the  encouragement  and  instruction 
of  the  young.     They  are  the  hope  of  the  church,  and  as  such 


192      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

imperatively  demand  the  attention  and  sympathy  of  all 
who  love  the  Lord  Jesus.  Wherever  practicable  it  is  well  to 
encourage  suitable  reading  among  the  members,  by  forming 
a  library  of  select  literature  ;  financially,  this  could  be  easily 
accomplished  by  each  individual  contributing  a  given  pro- 
portion towards  a  general  fund. 

The  following  advice  upon  cliurch  discipline  commends 
itself  alike  on  the  ground  of  prudence  and  of  feeling  : — 

A  meeting  of  the  church  should  never  be  convened  until 
there  is  sufficient  business  to  warrant  doing  so.  To  aet 
otherwise  is  simply  to  squander  time.  Church  meetings  are 
seldom  conducted  in  a  proper  manner.  Some  men  appear 
to  be  so  entirely  ignorant  of  public  usage  and  decorum  that 
they  deport  themselves  on  such  occasions  in  the  most 
unbecoming  spirit.  It  is  certain  however  that  the  wisest 
men  are  never  the  most  forward  to  call  attention  to  them- 
selves. One  of  the  most  noted  men  of  his  day  has  been  heard 
to  say  that,  while  a  private  member  of  a  church,  he  never  once 
opened  his  mouth  in  its  meetings.  Small  fellowships  are 
most  likely  to  fall  into  mistakes  on  this ,  particular ;  every 
man  thinks  he  has  something  to  say  which  will  enlighten 
the  brethren,  and  very  frequently  when  he  has  told  his 
tale  it  amounts  to  nothing.  The  best  way  of  preventing  the 
introduction  of  foreign  subjects  is  to  establish  the  rule  that 
no  business  of  immediate  importance  shall  be  transacted, 
except  such  as  has  been  previously  submitted  in  the  form  of 
notice.  In  pursuing  such  a  course  the  pastor  can  never 
be  taken  by  surprise ;  he  will  have  time  for  reflection, 
and  will  be  thereby  enabled  to  take  a  comprehensive  view 
of  the  question  in  its  varied  ramifications.  Every  minister 
should  talk  over  the  forthcoming  business  with  his  deacons, 
so  that  the  whole  official  staff  may  be  prepared  to  move  in 
harmony.  Never  be  anxious  to  find  out  cases  for  church 
discipline;    some   men  have   wrought   their   official  ruin  by 


Br.  John  Camplell.  193 

making  every  little  annoyance  a  subject  for  cliurcli  inter- 
ference. Be  faithful  in  private  remonstrance,  but  until  every 
otlier  means  has  failed  refrain  from  submitting  the  matter  to 
the  judgment  of  the  fellowship.  A  trifling  sore  may  be  healed 
by  a  little  address,  but  if  it  is  fretted  it  may  enlarge  and 
mortify.  Eemember  however  that  when  a  case  of  known 
delinquency  presents  itself  it  is  at  the  peril  of  the  church  to 
connive  thereat.  If  the  church  is  to  be  peaceable  it  must 
first  be  pure ;  the  stillness  which  is  caused  by  impurity  is  the 
ominous  quietude  which  precedes  the  thunder  shock  and  the 
earthquake  !  Care  not  about  lessening  the  numerical  strength 
of  the  body  ;  be  jealous  for  its  purity,  and  labour  patiently  for 
its  increase.  It  is  well  to  call  the  church  together  for  special 
prayer ;  this  practice  ever  reminds  the  people  of  the  Source  of 
all  their  strength  and  mercy. 

Another  hint  on  preaching  is  worthy  of  recollection  : — 

In  choosing  a  text  don't  be  anxious  to  find  anything  very 
peculiar ;  some  men  indulge  a  kind  of  pride  in  preaching  from 
mottoes;  for  example,  such  words  as  "if,"  "so,"  "now," 
"  but,"  etc.,  have  been  adopted  as  texts.  The  ignorant  and 
childish  may  be  struck  with  admiration  of  the  preacher's 
talent  who  can  "  make  a  sermon  out  of  so  little ;"  but  the 
more  steady  and  intelligent  will  be  grieved  that  Grod's  word 
is  so  little  honoured.  Never  disjoint  the  sentence,  always 
have  complete  sense ;  take  the  whole  idea,  and  then  you  will 
have  some  ground  to  work  upon.  Here  again  comes  up  the 
old  plan  of  expository  preaching.  He  who  honours  God's 
word  may  expect  his  people  to  grow  in  knowledge  and  in 
understanding;  he  who  continually  sets  forth  himself  and 
introduces  controversial  subjects,  which  are  of  minor  im- 
portance, can  scarcely  wonder  if  the  people  become  dabblers 
in  polemics  and  captious  to  an  inconvenient  degree.  Having 
chosen  a  suitable  text,  confine  yourself  to  it  entirely, — make  it 
speak :  there  is  music  in  it ;  pray  that  your  fingers  may  touch 

o 


194      Ad  Clcrum :  Advices  to  a   Young  Preaclier. 

the  cliords  ariglit,  so  that  melody  may  be  evoked.  Tou 
are  not  expected  to  preach  a  body  of  divinity  in  every 
discourse.  Some  pulpit  ramblers  range  tbe  whole  ^e\di,  flying 
everywhere,  but  digging  nowhere.  Be  you  a  digger ;  sink  the 
shaft  fearlessly,  the  gold  is  embowelled  in  the  deep  places ; 
go  down,  persevere,  and  bring  it  up.  There  is  water  even  in 
the  rock  ;  smite  it  with  a  heaven-directed  hand,  and  it  will 
gush  most  freely  :  there  is  poetry  in  the  old  historic  page ; 
breathe  on  it  with  prayer,  and  the  song  w;ill  be  heard  :  what- 
ever your  text  be,  it  is  capable  of  turning  out  plenty  of 
material  to  sustain  a  separate  discourse ;  honour  it  so,  and  you 
will  never  lack  scope  and  variety. 

Dr.  Campbell  would  have  spared  himself  many  a  battle 
if  he  had  acted  upon  his  own  advice^  as  given  in  the 
following  extract : — • 

Be  careful  to  form  and  maintain  a  cliaracter ;  as  to 
reputation,  that  must  be  left  to  take  its  own  course. 
Character  is  what  a  man  really  is ;  reputation  is  what  people 
say  he  is.  A  man  may  have  a  good  character  and  a  bad 
reputation.  Tou  cannot  fail  to  enjoy  esteem  if  you  truly 
deserve  it  and  thoroughly  work  for  it.  It  will  not  come  in  a 
day ;  it  may  be  a  slow  growth,  but  none  the  less  certain 
on  that  account.  Be  firm  in  your  principles,  modest  in  their 
avowal,  straightforward  in  your  dealing;  and  men  will  value 
you  at  a  proper  price.  A  man's  character  will  be  formed  by 
his  thought,  reading,  society ;  his  reputation  will  be  the  esti- 
mate which  observers  place  upon  his  objective  developments. 
Character  applies  to  spirit,  feeling,  desire ;  hence  when 
these  are  brought  to  bear  upon  daily  life  we  profess  to 
see  what  a  man's  character  is  by  the  actions  which  he  per- 
forms. Be  careful  how  you  enter  into  any  public  defence 
of  character ;  if  you  are  called  upon  to  sustain  charges  your 
course  will  be  to  acknowledge  them  ii  true,  and  to  leave  them 
to  a  natural  death  \i false.    There  are  doubtless  circumstances 


Br.  John  Gamphell.  195 

in  wliicli  a  minister  may  be  imperatively  called  upon  to  refute 
charges  and  "  answer  fools  according  to  their  folly,"  but 
generally  speaking  it  is  best  to  "  live  "  your  enemies  "liars." 
Whatever  you  do  in  this  particular,  be  careful  how  you  tvrite, 
either  privately  or  for  the  press.  Never  write  in  a  passion, 
the  document  may  remain  a  perpetual  monument  of  your 
folly ;  a  hasty  word  may  be  forgotten  or  modified  in  its 
meaning,  a  icritten  statement  will  be  judged  by  a  different 
standard.  Kever  think  of  going  to  the  press  with  any 
"Appeal,"  "  Statement,"  or  "  Defence,"  except  you  be  placed 
in  such  circumstances  as  no  minister  ever  was  before  you ;  and 
even  then  pause — pause  !  The  public  have  nothing  to  do  with 
church  annoyances.  A  vitiated  taste  is  ever  craving  for  such 
disclosures,  but  men  of  wisdom  and  piety  will  be  very  slow  to 
gratify  such  a  morbid  propensity.  Speah  with  caution — fast 
and  pray  before  you  write  ! 

Sucli  is  a  sample  of  a  rather  large  stock.  It  is  not  my 
present  business  to  offer  any  detailed  criticism  upon 
Dr.  CampbelFs  public  life_,  as  such  criticism  would  be  out 
of  place  in  a  paper  devoted  to  personal  recollections. 
There  cannot  be  any  doubt  that  the  severest  charges 
against  many  of  Dr.  Campbell's  opinions  and  public 
practices  could  be  sustained,  as  there  cannot  be  any 
doubt  that  in  innumerable  cases  he  proved  himself  to 
be  wise,  generous,  and  just.  One  thing  is  pretty  certain, 
the  Congregational  body  will  happily  never  have  a  second 
Dr.  Campbell;  it  will  have  many  men  who  can  do  the 
same  kind  of  rough  and  ready  public  work,  but  if  they 
presume  to  touch  his  hammer  they  will  soon  be  compelled 
to  lay  it  down  again.  The  reign  of  the  hammer  has  gone, 
and  as  civilisation  pursues  an  ascending  course  there 
is  happily  no  prospect  of  the  return  of  so  rude  a 
sovereignty.     Honouring  the  memory  of  Dr.    Campbell 

0  2 


196       Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

in  one  or  two  of  its  aspects,  I  cannot  but  feel  tliat  lie  out- 
lived the  time  in  wliich  his  peculiar  influence  could  have 
any  value,  and  that  increasing  life  would  have  meant 
decreasing  power.  For  patience,  perseverance,  and  self- 
expenditure  in  hard  work,  probably  the  most  industrious 
man  amongst  us  would  yield  the  palm  to  Dr.  Campbell ; 
for  vigour,  sententiousness,  and  fervour  of  hurried  com- 
position, high  praise  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  most 
voluminous  of  denominational  editors  and  authors ;  and 
if  his  defences  of  orthodoxy  were  often  the  severest 
blows  that  could  be  aimed  at  the  very  object  which 
he  sought  to  serve,  he  was  not  the  only  man  whose 
services  would  have  been  improved  by  moderation. 


XIII. 
A  CHAPTER  ON  PASTORAL  THEOLOGY. 

A  GOOD  many  most  gifted  and  scliolarly  young  men 
have  failed  rather  in  the  administration  of  affairs  than  in 
the  discharge  of  their  pulpit  duties.  This  circumstance 
has  chafed  them,  has  rendered  them  impatient,  and  in  the 
long  run  has  occasionally  wrecked  their  public  usefulness 
and  honour.  I  have  known  a  few  marked  instances  of 
this  unhappy  experience;  and  have  seen  how  strong  is 
the  temptation  to  fasten  upon  the  supposed  imperfections 
of  a  system  the  faults  which  are  distinctly  traceable  to 
want  of  practical  discipline  on  the  part  of  unsuccessful 
men.  Believe  me,  it  will  be  of  small  service  to  you  as  a 
pastor  if  you  know  how  to  parse  a  chapter  in  the  Greek 
Testament,  but  do  not  know  how  to  accost  an  unfriendly 
critic  or  give  the  turn  to  a  disagreeable  debate.  Not  a 
few  young  men  who  have  been  able  to  discuss  Aristo- 
phanes have  been  utterly  routed  by  a  third-rate  shop- 
keeper as  to  the  order  in  which  resolutions  and  amend- 
ments should  be  put  to  a  meeting ;  no  doubt  this  is  very 
humiliating  :  the  third-rate  shopkeeper  was  utterly  igno- 
rant of  ''  The  Clouds ''  and  ''  The  Frogs,''  yet  he  had  a 
grain  of  common  sense,  and  with  that  he  was  able  to 
overthrow  the  Goliath  of  scholarship.  Too  often  the  said 
Goliath  has  abused  the  church  system  which  gave  such 
men  an   opportunity  of  displaying    their    tiny  abilities, 


198      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

never  dreaming  tliat  he  himself  might  have  been  qualified 
to  beat  such  opponents  on  their  own  ground.  Now  I  wish 
you  to  be  a  sensible  man  in  all  practical  afiairs_,  to  have  a 
knowledge  of  men  and  things^  and  in  all  departments  of 
your  work  to  be  a  workman  who  needeth  not  to  be 
ashamed.  Happily  in  your  case  there  is  no  occasion  to 
reply  to  the  senseless  conceit  that  business  is  vulgar. 
Some  dazzling  geniuses  of  the  clerical  order  solace  them- 
selves with  the  comfortable  falsehood  that  men  of  their 
rich  culture  need  not  stoop  to  the  engagements  and  dis- 
tractions of  common  mortals.  It  is  enough  that  they  dis- 
cuss various  readings,  that  they  bestow  a  languid  patronage 
upon  the  literary  club,  and  that  they  dream  of  their  own 
overshadowing  greatness  and  destined  immortality.  It 
is  amazing  how  many  of  those  gigantic  men  manage  to 
slip  out  of  the  world^s  sight  into  total  oblivion !  They 
began  so  blazingly,  their  programme  was  so  polished, 
their  tone  so  elevated  in  unearthly  refinement ;  and  yet  in 
less  than  two  years  people  hardly  care  to  inquire  whether 
they  are  yet  in  the  world  :  this,  I  say,  is  very  amazing, 
and  yet  perhaps  after  all  it  is  not  so  very  wonderful  when 
we  remember  in  what  a  crooked,  hard-grained,  vulgar 
world  our  lot  has  fallen.  Do  you  remember  Mr.  Wash- 
ington's story  of  the  truly  learned  and  thriftless  snob 
who  astounded  a  ferryman  by  a  display  of  his  attain- 
ments ?  "  My  good  man,''  said  he,  "  do  you  understand 
mathematics  ?"  The  boatman  ingenuously  answered  that 
he  had  never  heard  of  them,  whereupon  the  man  of  learn- 
ing assured  him  that  one-fourth  of  his  life  was  lost.  "  Do 
you  then,"  continued  the  refined  inquirer,  "  understand 
astronomy?"  The  boatman  shook  his  head;  '^Then," 
said  the  mighty  man,  "  another  fourth  of  your  life  is  lost." 


A  Cliapter  on  Pastoral  Theolorjij.  199 

After  a  pause,  tlie  sage  put  a  further  question  :  '^  Do  you 
know  anything  of  the  science  of  chemistry  ?  ^^  The  ferry- 
man replied  that  he  knew  nothing  about  it,  and  instantly 
the  scholar  assured  him  that  three- fourths  of  his  life  was 
lost.  The  boatman  looked  uneasy;  he  turned  to  the 
right  hand  and  to  the. left  with  the  air  of  a  frightened 
man;  a  powerful  steamer  was  bearings  rapidly  down  the 
river;  addressing  the  intellectual  fare,  he  said — "Did  you 
ever  learn  to  swim  V  And  when  the  illustrious  scholar 
said  "  No,'^  the  boatman  replied,  "  Then  all  your  life  is 
lost  together  ! ''  The  man  of  genius  went  down  into  that 
dreary  cemetery  where  no  marble  is  allowed  to  mark  the 
pillow  of  the  sleepers.  The  story  is  its  own  moral, 
whether  applied  to  common  people  or  to  manufactured 
and  machine-made  scholars, — beware  of  knowing  every- 
thing except  the  one  thing  needful ! 

It  would  be  easy  to  show  you  that  in  practical  life 
common  sense  is  better  than  genius ;  of  course,  if  you  can 
have  both  common  sense  and  genius,  by  all  means  have 
them,  for  it  must  be  an  advantage  to  have  wings  as  well 
as  feet.  My  object  is  to  guard  you  against  the  genius 
that  has  no  sense,  and  to  save  you  from  the  coloured 
bottles  that  carry  nothing  but  labels.  It  would  not  be 
difficult  for  a  minister  of  twenty  years'  standing  to  name 
half  a  hundred  of  his  brethren  who  by  common  sense, 
without  brilliance  or  scholarship,  have  preached  the 
gospel  and  administered  the  affairs  of  the  church  with 
the  most  marked  efficiency  and  success;  brethren,  too, 
who  have  been  sneered  at  by  clerical  fledglings  who  have 
sought  to  make  their  way  through  the  ministry  into 
gentlemanhood.  You  need  not  trouble  yourself  with  the 
sneers  of  such  men;  they  cannot  injure  you;  you  have 


200      Ad  Clerum :    Adcices  to  a  Young  Freaclier, 

time  as  jour  vindicator,  and  in  seven  years  tlie  sneerers 
will  have  been  *'  buried  witb  tbe  burial  of  an  ass/^  It  is 
no  doubt  troublesome  to  tlie  flesh  to  be  exposed  to  the 
small  remarks  of  small  men,  but  if  you  live  in  your  work 
and  never  lose  sight  of  your  Master  you  will  soon  be 
inaccessible  to  the  influence  of  critics  who  work  from  the 
point  of  personal  mortification.  What  you  have  to  do 
then  is  to  make  yourself  master  of  the  affairs  which  must 
necessarily  engage  your  attention ;  for  a  time  they  may 
be  irksome ;  for  a  time  you  may  long  to  escape  to  more 
congenial  pursuits  :  but  you  must  resolutely  fight  out  the 
battle,  and  in  your  chief  difficulty  find  your  chief  joy. 
Some  of  your  people  may  mistake  sciolism  for  scholarship, 
and  others  may  not  be  able  to  distinguish  between  noise 
and  music ;  but  the  majority  of  them  will  not  be  long  in 
forming  a  just  opinion  of  your  business  capabilities,  nor 
need  it  be  matter  of  wonder  if  you  gain  their  respect  and 
confidence  by  showing  yourself  their  equal  in  departments 
with  which  they  are  most  familiar.  On  the  other  hand  a 
sensible  man  will  be  careful  not  to  be  fussy  and  meddle- 
some in  the  discharge  of  his  duties ;  he  will  not  force 
himself  into  everything  as  if  nothing  could  be  done  with- 
out him,  but  by  timely  withdrawment,  by  seeing  as  if  he 
were  not  looking,  by  leading  as  if  he  were  following,  he 
will  double  his  influence  and  multiply  his  friends.  I 
know  a  good  man  who  has  never  been  out  of  hot  water 
simply  on  account  of  his  self-importance  in  the  matter  of 
church  business ;  his  only  fault  is  his  omniscience ;  he 
knows  everything  better  than  anybody  else ;  he  writes  all 
the  resolutions,  nominates  all  the  officers,  dictates  all  the 
programmes,  dismisses  his  helpers  without  notice  or 
reason,  and  so  keeps  himself  in  about  as  hot  a  bath  as 


A  Chapter  on  Pastoral  Theology.  201 

flesli  and  blood  can  bear.  He  is  quite  a  terrible  man  of 
business;  lie  strikes  tbe  business  with  a  steam  hammer; 
he  thunders  and  lightens  at  the  business ;  fire  and 
brimstone  cannot  keep  him  back  from  business.  And 
what  a  business  he  makes  of  it !  He  knows  the  trust- 
deed  off  by  heart;  he  can  quote  all  the  acts  of  parlia- 
ment which  relate  to  public  meetings  for  political  and 
religious  purposes ;  he  can  beard  revising  barristers  and 
claim  his  vote  as  the  minister  of  the  few  mouldering 
bricks  which  he  calls  his  chapel;  he  knows  about  magis- 
trates_,  summonses,  subpoenas,  and  aflSdavits ;  and  all  this 
knowledge  he  has  so  far  turned  to  account  in  his  eccle- 
siastical arrangements  as  to  make  his  church  into  nothing 
better  than  a  baptized  police  court.  And  such  a  man  he 
is  for  technicalities  !  If  a  member  of  his  church  has  a 
simple  and  inoffensive  resolution  to  propose,  he  must  give 
three  weeks^  notice  thereof  to  the  pastor ;  a  copy  of  it 
must  be  sent  to  a  preliminary  committee ;  the  name  and 
address  of  the  seconder  must  be  duly  entered  in  a  book 
kept  for  that  purpose ;  and  the  unfortunate  speaker  must 
be  thrice  assured  that  if  he  say  one  word  contrary  to  the 
trust-deed  (of  which  he  never  had  an  opportunity  of  read- 
ing a  sentence)  he  may  be  ecclesiastically  dismembered 
on  the  spot.  You  will  readily  believe  that  the  wretched 
man  is  a  martyr  to  his  insane  devotion  to  business,  and 
that  he  no  sooner  gets  a  respectable  seatholder  than  he 
loses  him.  He  does  not  know  the  mystery  of  artless- 
ness ;  he  cannot  preside  unless  he  is  in  the  chair ;  he  is 
so  burdened  with  rules  as  to  be  utterly  without  law ;  in  a 
word,  he  is  so  orderly  as  to  necessitate  his  living  in  a 
state  of  chronic  disorder.  If  the  light  that  is  in  thee  be 
darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness  ! 


202       Ad  Clenim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

A  few  niglits  since  we  lield  anotlier  council  meeting, 
and  as  the  subject  is  immediately  related  to  tlie  topic  now 
before  us  I  will  give  you  a  rough  note  of  our  proceedings. 
The  Safety-pin  was  in  full  force,  and  as  is  usual  under 
such  conditions  he  boldly  plunged  into  the  first  subject 
that  occurred  to  him. 

'^  As  to  church  meetings/^  said  he,  ^^  I  should  like  to 
know  the  opinion  of  the  brethren ;  I  confess  they  are  my 
hete  noirJ' 

The  dummies  were  shocked,  for  they  are  both  manag- 
ing men ;  their  idolatry  of  prudence  has  kept  them  at 
a  long  distance  from  everything  that  looked  like  a  lions^ 
den.  ^^  For  thirty  years,-''  said  the  elder  of  them,  "I  have 
never  had  a  divided  church  meeting,  nor  even  the  appear- 
ance of  divided  sentiment  "  :  this  he  said  in  a  tone  which 
nearly  meant  something. 

"  You  must  have  been  an  awfully  dead  set  of  fogies 
then,''  Safety-pin  replied;  "  why  in  one-tenth  of  that  time 
two  of  my  officers  prayed  at  me  because  I  had  not  candi- 
dates enough  to  propose,  and  one  old  sinner  hinted  that 
he  would  like  a  little  less  theology  and  a  little  more 
Christianity  in  the  sermons  of  ^Thy  dear  servant  our 
esteemed  pastor' — a  prayer  unanswered  to  this  day." 

The  dummies  looked  uneasy,  for  they  had  patiently 
listened  to  the  same  solid  devotions  regularly  once  a  week 
for  many  years,  and  had  never  ventured  to  dream  of  the 
possibility  of  one  sentence  being  changed  or  one  new 
petition  being  conceived. 

"  A  very  wicked  thing  is  that  of  lecturing  people  in 
prayer,"  our  critical  friend  observed. 

"A  little  prudence  on  the  part  of  the  minister " 

one  of  the  dummies  was  saying  when  Safety-pin  cut  him 


A  Chapter  on  Fastoral  Theology.  203 

short  with  a  malediction  on  prudence  which  I  will  not 
repeat. 

''Still/'  said  Mr.  Washington^  ''we  should  not  forget 
that  sometimes  courage  is  concealed  under  prudence,,  and 
it  has  often  been  shown  that  wisdom  is  better  than  de- 
fiance ;  in  fact,  as  to  all  these  questions  of  management 
I  may  give  it  as  my  opinion,  founded  on  considerable 
experience,  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  a  minister 
may  have  his  own  way  if  he  will  only  manage  things 
properly.''^ 

"  That  is,"  said  Safety-pin,  "  a  man  may  live  as  long  as 
he  likes  if  he  will  only  keep  out  of  the  way  of  death.'' 

"Well,  not  exactly  so,"  Mr.  Washington  answered;  ''at 
the  same  time  a  man  should  not  expect  to  live  long  if  he 
indulges  pretty  frequently  in  poisonous  doses,  and  amuses 
himself  by  trying  the  effect  of  edged  instruments  on  his 
throat." 

The  dummies  were  satisfied  :  the  nearest  approach  to 
pleasure  which  they  ever  made  in  our  meetings  was  when 
a  keen  word  was  said  to  Safety-pin;  they  dared  not  attack 
him  themselves,  but  they  warmly  cheered  the  brother 
who  laid  a  heavy  hand  upon  him.  We  think  ourselves 
courageous  when  we  applaud  courage  in  others. 

As  chairman  of  the  council  I  requested  Mr.  Washington 
to  give  us  his  idea  of  managing  things  properly;  for,  though 
secretly,  I  had  a  suspicion  that  there  was  room  enough  in 
that  elastic  expression  to  admit  the  meaning  which  Safety- 
pin  intended  to  convey  by  his  blunt  remark. 

"  I  cannot  do  better,"  he  courteously  replied,  "  than 
refer  you  to  a  few  points  which  my  old  pastor  wrote  out 
for  me ;  he  said  they  had  saved  him  from  a  good  many 
mistakes  in  a  long  public  life  " 


204      Ad  Clerum  :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher 

"  Who  was  your  old  pastor,  by  the  way  ?  ^'  Safety-pin 
interposed. 

Mr.  Washington  would  have  answered,  but  it  was  ruled 
from  the  chair  that  we  must  have  the  points ;  accordingly 
we  set  ourselves  (with  the  exception  of  Safety-pin,  who 
lay  back  in  his  seat  and  surveyed  the  ceiling  with  the  air 
of  an  injured  man)  in  an  attentive  posture,  and  Mr.  Wash- 
ington read  the  instructions  of  his  venerable  pastor  : — 

1.  When  a  poker  falls  out  of  the  fire  never  take  it  up 
by  the  hot  end. 

2.  When  a  man  has  anything  to  say  in  opposition,  in- 
sist upon  his  having  the  fullest  opportunity  of  being 
heard,  and  when  he  is  approaching  a  conclusion  beg  him 
not  to  think  of  giving  over. 

3.  Never  water  a  weed. 

4.  Never  allow  an  opposition  motion  to  be  put  to  the 
meeting  on  its  first  proposition  ;  express  your  interest 
in  the  novelty  of  the  suggestion,  and  tell  the  proposer 
that  it  is  due  to  him  that  a  resolution  so  important  and  so 
far  reaching  in  its  bearings  should  have  the  advantage  of 
careful  study  in  private,  and  that  you  will  feel  obliged  to 
him  if  he  will  politely  allow  you  to  take  it  home  for 
critical  reflection.  (Few  men  can  resist  the  pleasure  of 
being  publicly  strangled  in  the  noose  of  a  compliment.) 

[Safety-pin  groaned,  as  he  thus  saw  prudence  degener- 
ating into  deceit.] 

5.  If  you  want  to  have  the  pulpit  lowered  a  little,  begin 
by  asking  to  have  the  sjpire  taken  down. 

6.  If  you  suspect  opposition  in  any  quarter,  privately 
request  the  suspected  opponent  to  take  charge  of  the 
very  resolution  which  he  is  expected  to  oppose  :  tell  him 
you  feel  the  importance  of  his  doing  so  (which  is  perfectly 


A  Chajpter  on  Fastoral  Theology.  205 

true)  :  say  tliat  sucli  resolutions  ouglit  to  be  introduced 
by  tlie  ablest  men  in  tlie  cliurcli ;  if  lie  hesitate^  ask  him 
to  dinner. 

["  What  an  old  ras — '^  Safety-pin  said^  but  tlie  cbair- 
man  called  "  silence  "  peremptorily.] 

7.  If  a  man  oppose  your  preaching,  instantly  request 
him  to  supply  the  pulpit. 

8.  If  the  deacons  suggest  that  *'  o,  change  is  desirable/' 
say  that  is  exactly  your  opinion,  '^'mutatis  mutandis'';  the 
Latin  will  save  you. 

When  Mr.  AYashington  ceased  the  Safety-pin  sprang 
to  his  feet,  and  declared  that  the  old  pastor  was  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  crafty  old  fox,  and  he  was  glad  that 
no  name  had  been  given. 

"  Wait  a>  while,''  said  Mr.  Washington,  anxious  for  his 
pastor's  honour;  "calm  yourself  for  a  moment,  and  be 
good  enough  to  answer  one  question — are  we  not  com- 
manded to  be  wise  as  serpents  ?" 

Both  the  dummies  instantly  showed,  by  rapid  motions 
of  their  shiny  heads,  that  they  had  a  lively  recollection 
of  the  command. 

"  I  say,"  Safety-pin  boldly  replied,  "  that  the  honesty 
of  a  minister  should  be  immaculate." 

"  And  has  anybody  in  this  council  said  anything  to  the 
contrary  ?  "  the  elder  dummy  inquired. 

"  That  paper  is  full  of  deceit,"  was  Safety-pin's  curt 
reply. 

"I  must  claim  a  hearing  on  this  point,  Mr.  Chairman," 
Mr.  Washington  exclaimed  with  more  than  ordinary  re- 
solution in  his  voice,  "  because  my  old  pastor  has  been 
misunderstood;  of  course  his  words  are  to  be  taken  in 
an  accommodated  sense ;  he  did  not  know  what  it  was  to 


203       Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

truckle  to  any  man,  or  to  conceal  an  opinion  where  any- 
great  principle  was  involved  :  at  tlie  same  time  lie  did 
not  voluntarily  run  his  head  against  a  wall,  nor  jump  into 
a  ditch  just  to  see  how  deep  it  was :  he  was  a  consummate 
tactician,  so  that  he  did  by  skill  what  others  attempted  by 
force,  and  if  you  will  read  his  paper  in  the  light  of  this 
fact  you  will  find  nothing  objectionable  in  it/^ 

'^A  man^s  morality  should  not  require  a  glossary  to  ex- 
plain it,"  Safety-pin  persisted. 

^^Nor  should  it  need  a  flaming  sword  to  defend  it, 
amongst  brethren,^^  Mr.  Washington  sharply  rejoined. 

^^  Brethren,"  said  I,  "  I  agree  with  you  both " 

^'  Nay,  nay,"  said  Safety-pin ;  "  be  honest,  and  fight 
one  of  us." 

^'I  can  be  honest  and  agree  with  both  of  you,"  I  firmly 
continued;  '''the  paper  which  Mr.  Washington  has  read  was 
never  intended  as  a  lesson  in  Loyola-ism;  it  was  evidently 
meant  to  be  humorous  rather  than  serious,  and  to  take  the 
study  of  human  nature  out  of  the  list  of  hard  subjects. 
The  very  fact  that  the  bright  old  man  allowed  the  paper 
to  be  copied  and  to  pass  from  hand  to  hand  is  to  me 
evidence  enough  of  his  candour  and  simplicity;  if  he 
meant  it  as  a  lesson  in  snare  making  or  man  trapping, 
he  certainly  outwitted  himself  and  put  the  collar  round 
his  own  neck  as  a  public  deceiver." 

This  view  of  the  case  had  a  happy  efiect  upon  the 
council,  and  here  I  may  note  that  the  most  successful 
reasoning  in  such  circumstances  is  to  show  that  no  man 
would  willingly  make  such  a  fool  of  himself  as  your 
opponent  is  anxious  to  prove.  For  a  few  moments  our 
conversation  was  suspended;  we  were  looking  for  that 
most  useful  and  much  worn  old  bridge  by  which  unskilled 


A  Chapter  on  Pastoral  Theology,  207 

interlocutors  cross  to  a  new  subject.  Bridge  or  no 
bridge,  we  soon  found  ourselves  discussing  tbe  question 
of  pastoral  visitation^  wliich.  we  did  in  a  tone  of  general 
dissatisfaction  and  complaint. 

^'  An  infinite  nuisance  !  ^'  said  Safety-pin,  ^'  at  least  so 
far  as  I  am  concerned.  Talk  about  old  pastors,"  lie 
continued  with  recovered  good  humour,  "  I  ^11  matcb.  my 
own  against  any  of  yours  for  pastoral  visitation.  I  never 
saw  such  a  man  in  all  my  life.  No  sooner  was  one  of 
his  people  ill  than  the  old  boy  was  down  upon  him  twice 
a  day  the  first  week,  and  once  a  day  ever  after,  until  the 
poor  patient  was  glad  to  get  better  in  order  to  escape 
him,  I  can  assure  you.  And  as  for  a  memory,  it  was 
perfectly  astounding ;  if  you  met  him  after  an  interval  of 
a  month,  he  would  say,  ^  Good  morning  Mr.  So-and-so; 
is  your  toothache  quite  gone  ?^  of  course  you  would  look 
half  stupid  as  if  you  had  no  recollection  of  what  he  was 
talking  about,  and  then  he  would  remind  you  that  when 
he  saw  you  last  you  were  crazy  with  toothache,  not 
having  slept  for  a  week,  and  so  on ;  and  then  you  would 
suddenly  remember  your  old  torture  and  laugh  at  it,  and 
thank  the  old  man,  and  say  how  kind  he  was,  and  all  that 
sort  of  thing. ■'^ 

"  I  know  the  style  of  man,"  Mr.  Washington  replied, 
'■^and  have  often  coveted  the  memory  you  speak  of,  for 
it  is  really  marvellous ;  for  my  own  part  I  should  be 
thankful  to  remember  people's  names,  whatever  might 
come  of  their  ailments :  it  is  very  humiliating  to  be 
talking  to  one  of  your  members,  and  yet  to  be  unable  to 
mention  his  name,  and  that  kind  of  thing  is  after  all  set 
down  to  a  man^s  disadvantage." 

"  I  am  rather  fortunate  in  that  way  so  far  as  adults  are 


208       Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young,  Preacher. 

concerned/'  I  replied;  "but  when  I  go  into  a  family 
where  there  are  from  six  to  ten  children  I  am  often  at  a 
loss  to  recollect  their  names/' 

"  Legitimately  so/'  the  younger  dummy  interposed, 
with  his  usual  simplicity  of  speech. 

'^  Yet  as  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention/'  I  con- 
tinued, "  I  have  hit  upon  a  plan  which  serves  me  very 
well.  When  an  unknown  youngster  runs  up  to  me  I 
hail  him  with  the  challenge,  ^Now  you  can't  spell  your 
first  name  ?'  Then  he  begins  :  '  Tho — /'  '  Jose — / 
^  Hen — /  and  he  is  mine  safe  enough.  You  will  find  that 
to  remember  a  child's  name  will  cover  a  multitude  of  sins 
in  a  sermon." 

"  But  after  all/'  said  Mr.  Washington,  "  ought  not  the 
preacher  and  the  pastor  to  be  two  different  men  ?  You 
have  men  who  devote  their  whole  time  to  the  study  of 
the  human  eye,  and  others  who  devote  their  whole  time 
to  the  study  of  the  human  ear ;  why  should  it  be  thought 
unreasonable  that  another  class  of  men  should  give  their 
days  and  nights  to  the  study  of  preaching,  and  others 
spend  their  lives  in  the  equally  important  work  of  com- 
forting and  directing  the  disconsolate  and  perplexed?" 

"  You  overlook  a  point,  I  think,"  the  Safety-pin  sug- 
gested ;  '^  you  will  find  that  sympathy  on  the  part  of  the 
people  is  established  in  connection  with  what  the^  hear 
from  the  pulpit ;  the  preacher  excites  their  admiration, 
satisfies  their  judgment,  and  so  secures  their  confidence; 
the  natural  and,  I  must  confess,  happy  consequence  is 
that  when  they  come  into  circumstances  requiring 
special  solace  or  counsel  they  wish  to  see  the  man 
whom  they  love  and  trust  as  their  public  teacher.  Send 
a  stranger  to  them ;  and  however  wise  and  excellent  he 


A  Cliaioter  on  Pastoral  Theology,  209 

may  be^  there  is  no  point  of  sympathy  to  begin  witli_, 
tbey  do  not  know  Ms  voice^  tbey  can  make  no  references 
to  bis  teaching,  tbey  bave  no  cause  of  thankfulness  in 
relation  to  him,  and  the  consequence  is  a  prevention  of 
hearty  communication.'' 

Mr.  Washington  instantly  allowed  the  soundness  of  the 
doctrine.  ''  I  only  contend/'  said  he,  ''  that  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  men  who  have  a  marked  gift  of  preaching 
should  be  under  the  necessity  of  attempting  a  kind  of 
work  for  which  they  are  quite  unfit ;  where  a  man  has 
the  double  gift  of  the  preacher  and  pastor  his  service 
must  be  the  source  of  the  purest  joy  which  the  heart 
can  experience  upon  earth  :  my  remarks  must  be  under- 
stood to  refer  solely  to  ministers  whose  one  gift  is  the 
gift  of  preaching,  and  who  yet  have  to  undertake  en- 
gagements for  which  they  have  no  fitness." 

"  An  unavoidable  necessity  though,  I  am  afraid,""  said 
I,  "  especially  considering  what  has  now  been  said  about 
the  sympathy  which  comes  naturally  from  gratitude  for 
pulpit  services.  There  are  men  in  our  ministry  who 
ought  never  to  leave  the  pulpit,  they  should  be  chained 
to  it  if  ever  they  are  to  do  any  good ;  they  seem  to  have 
a  knack  of  getting  into  blunders ;  by  levity,  by  love  of 
eating  and  drinking,  by  a  fatal  habit  of  always  saying 
the  wrong  word  and  never  hitting  Hhe  right  time,  they 
somehow  bring  themselves  into  contempt :  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  men  in  our  ministry  who  ought  never  to 
be  allowed  to  enter  the  pulpit ;  in  the  parlour  they  are 
charming  men,  they  can  set  their  voice  at  the  right  key, 
they  have  nice  little  sentences  for  nice  little  occasions, 
they  can  make  inquiries  about  a  headache  in  a  tone 
which  exquisitely  combines   sympathy  and  hopefulness^ 


210       Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a   Young  Freacher. 

and  they  can  ask  for  the  children  in  a  manner  which 
wins  the  parental  heart  most  entirely  j  in  higher  matters, 
too,  they  are  quite  as  successful ;  they  know  what  pas- 
sages of  Scripture  to  read  under  any  given  domestic  cir- 
cumstances, and  with  most  consummate  tact  can  throw  into 
a  supplicatory  form  the  most  secret  desires  of  the  heart. 
I  know  two  or  three  such  men,  most  admirable  and  useful 
men  in  their  own  way,  yet  when  they  get  into  the  pulpit 
they  are  stiff,  cold,  pointless  preachers,  always  drivelling 
upon  the  brevity  of  time,  the  uncertainty  of  life,  and  a 
place  which  they  refer  to  as  '  yon  bright  world  above/ 
The  consequence  is  that  the  young  (unless  they  happily 
escape  to  a  livelier  ministry)  become  prematurely  old, 
the  old  fall  asleep,  and  the  lackadaisical  report  to  them 
that  they  ^  have  had  such  a  heautifid  sermon/  Still,  in 
the  face  of  all  these  things,  I  see  no  prospect  of  separat- 
ing the  pastoral  from  the  ministerial,  so  fa.r  as  Congre- 
gationalism is  concerned/' 

'^  There  is  one  point  you  have  omitted,' '  said  one  of  the 
brethren  with  the  shining  heads,  "  in  making  out  the  list 
of  qualifications  possessed  by  some  ministers  who  are  not 
preachers;  I  mean  their  qualification  for  Bible-class 
teaching, — an  important  department  of  our  work  you 
will  allow/' 

Safety-pin  anticipjbted  me.  He  said  that  he  had 
no  opinion  of  men  who  had  young  ladies'  Bible  classes, 
young  men's  Bible  classes,  and  children's  Bible  classes  ; 
he  always  thought  there  was  a  screw  loose  when  men  had 
to  get  up  so  much  collateral  machinery  to  keep  their 
ministry  going.  My  note  of  our  proceedings  on  the 
occasion  in  question  ends  here ;  yet  I  must,  in  the  absence 
of  Safety-pin,  give  it  as  my  opinion  that  he  was  wrong  in 


A  Chapter  on  Tastoral  Theology.  211 

his  judgment  of  liis  brethren,  and  I  can  give  this  opinion 
the  more  freely  that  I  have  no  claim  to  the  high  title  of 
a  Bible-class  teacher.  I  question  whether  you  can  get 
at  the  deepest  veins  of  biblical  wealth  in  the  pulpit ;  the 
process,  besides  exposing  you  to  the  charge  of  pedantry, 
is  too  minute  and  (for  want  of  a  better  word)  scientific 
to  be  followed  by  a  miscellaneous  congregation ;  not  only 
so,  there  are  portions  of  Scripture  best  developed  by 
cross-examination  on  the  part  of  the  class,  and  that,  so 
to  speak,  will  show  their  brilliance  only  after  prolonged 
and  careful  friction.  You  will  find  when  you  come  to 
this  department  of  work,  one  thing  requiring  special 
attention :  many  of  your  pupils  will  seek  to  engage  you 
in  useless  speculation,  they  will  start  unprofitable  in- 
quiries, and  try  to  detain  you  upon  all  the  points  which 
are  in  debate  among  Christian  thinkers.  I  have  always 
found  it  best  to  acknowledge  at  once  that  there  are 
unsettled  questions  which  it  would  be  presumptuous  for 
any  but  the  ripest  scholars  and  theologians  to  attempt 
to  discuss,  and  to  decline  on  that  honest  ground  to  in- 
termeddle with  such  subjects  in  an  ordinary  Bible  class. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  second  period  of  my  ministry  a 
few  conceited  sciolists  made  a  determined  attempt  to 
force  such  difficulties  on  my  attention;  but  happily, 
though  perhaps  at  the  expense  of  their  self-complacency, 
I  was  enabled  to  escape  their  importunity  and  ultimately 
to  drive  them  from  the  field.  A  remembrance  of  that 
fact  causes  me  to  put  you  on  your  guard  against  a  very 
powerful  temptation  to  vindicate  yourself  from  a  charge 
of  incapacity  or  cowardice,  by  "rushing  in  where  angels 
fear  to  tread.-*^  In  the  Bible  you  will  find  scope  enough, 
for  the  exhaustion  of  all  your  ability  and  resources  with- 

p  2 


212       Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

out  frittering  away  your  time  on  tilings  too  liigh  for  you. 
I  have  found  it  very  convenient  and  profitable  to  follow 
up  in  a  Bible  class  a  course  of  expository  preacbing  :  say, 
for  example,  you  are  expounding  one  of  the  gospels  in  a 
series  of  Sunday  morning  lectures_,  get  tbe  members  of 
your  Bible  class  to  take  notes  of  your  exposition  and  to 
give  tbe  criticism  or  argument  in  tbeir  own  words.  This 
will  supply  an  excellent  basis  for  further  discussion  in 
class^  and  if  your  experience  correspond  with  my  own 
you  will  often  receive  suggestions  enough  to  enable  you 
to  prepare  a  second  and  better  lecture  on  your  last 
Sunday  morning's  subject.  You  will  probably  find  a 
difficulty  in  getting  some  of  your  members  to  adopt  the 
habit  of  taking  notes  and  making  abstracts  or  para- 
phrases, but  a  little  gentle  persuasion  in  private  will 
often  secure  the  object  you  have  in  view.  In  conducting 
processes  of  this  kind  I  have  received  many  a  hint  as  to 
the  best  method  of  preaching.  You  find  out  the  ignor- 
ance of  your  hearers ;  you  see  how  they  mistake  the 
meaning  of  words  which  to  the  preacher  are  quite 
simple;  you  feel  how  slow  they  are  to  comprehend  any 
process  of  reasoning,  and  how  little  account  they  can 
give  of  arguments  on  which  you  set  great  store.  These 
facts  will  often  clip  the  wings  of  your  soaring  rhetoric, 
and  force  you,  if  you  are  an  honest  steward,  to  preach 
not  to  yourself  but  to  others.  This  is  the  condescension 
which  comes  of  being  crucified  with  the  Saviour,  and  this 
the  holy  desire  which  is  intent  on  the  one  infinitely 
blessed  object  of  saving  the  souls  of  them  that  hear  the 
holy  word  from  your  lips. 


xiy. 

UNSUCCESSFUL   MEN. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  several  scores  of  educated 
men  wlio  liave  not  been  able  to  secure  pulpits  in  which,  to 
exercise  their  ministry ;  there  are  also  hundreds  of  pastors 
who  would  be  heartily  glad  to  see  a  way  of  escape  from 
their  present  position  to  more  congenial  spheres  of  use- 
fulness. I  cannot  pretend  to  exhaust  the  reason  of  this 
unsettledness;  probably  it  would  be  safe  to  say  that  "there 
are  faults  on  both  sides/^  and  so  leave  the  matter  without 
going  into  detail.  There  are^  however^  a  few  things  which 
have  been  made  so  clear  to  my  own  mind^  that  a  candid 
statement  may  be  of  use  to  you^  either  in  directing  your 
personal  ministry  or  giving  you  a  hint  as  to  the  best 
method  of  meeting  some  difficulties  in  your  pastoral  re- 
lations. It  may  be  prudent  to  premise  that  there  are 
several  proper  though  differing  interpretations  of  the  word 
success.  One  minister  may  succeed  in  overcrowding  his 
chapel;  another  may  have  a  very  limited  congregation, 
and  yet  may  succeed  in  exerting  a  most  stimulating  and 
healthful  influence  upon  special  classes  of  Christian  thinkers 
and  workers.  One  minister  may  succeed  in  doing  a  most 
useful  pioneer  work ;  another  may  succeed  in  organising 
and  edifying  undisciplined  and  uninstructed  beginners : 
so  also,,  one  minister  may  succeed  in  binding  to  him  the 
affections  of  the  young ;  and  another  may  have  a  special 


214       Ad  Gleriim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

adaptation  to  teacli  and  comfort  tlie  busy,  the  afflicted,  the 
speculative,  or  the  indifferent.  I  think  it  well  to  point 
out  this  difference  in  the  bearings  of  the  word  success, 
and  thereby  assist  to  remove  the  mischievous  impression 
that  all  success  is  to  be  measured  by  one  arbitrary  sign  or 
standard.  Success  is  a  question  of  individual  adaptation. 
1.  The  first  place  on  the  list  of  unsuccessful  men  is,  of 
course,  occupied  by  those  who,  in  seeking  admission  into 
the  ministry,  have  evidently  mistaken  their  calling.  In 
such  cases  it  is  not  a  question  of  a  distinct  call  or  an 
indistinct  call,  there  is  simply  no  call  at  all.  A  youth,  on 
becoming  conscious  of  living  in  Jesus  Christ,  on  seeing 
heaven  opened  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and 
descending  as  ministers  of  the  church,  feels  a  most  pure 
and  urgent  desire  to  preach  the  gospel :  with  this  end  in 
view  he  appeals  to  his  pastor  for  the  requisite  introduction 
to  college.  The  pastor  hesitates,  suggests  further  consi- 
deration of  the  important  subject  j  by-and-by  the  appeal 
is  renewed,  the  parents  of  the  youth  express  a  strong 
opinion  in  favour  of  his  request,  and  sanguine  friends  join 
in  the  ill  advised  importunity  ;  at  length  the  minister 
yields,  with  a  reluctance  which  is  met  by  exclamations  of 
angry  surprise,  and  the  youth  is  admitted  into  college. 
In  a  short  time  the  most  favourable  reports  are  received; 
in  a  few  months  more,  the  youth  passes  an  examination 
in  a  highly  creditable  manner;  at  the  end  of  the  fii'st 
year  he  takes  a  prize,  at  the  end  of  the  second  he  gains 
a  scholarship ;  thus  the  opinion  of  friends  is  abundantly 
confirmed,  and  the  hesitation  of  the  minister  is  openly 
ascribed  to  an  unworthy  motive.  Ask  the  minister  himself 
what  his  opinion  is  in  the  face  of  this  rapid  and  flattering 
success  :  he  will  probably  reply  —  "  My  opinion  is  the 


Uiisuccessfid  Men,  215 

same  now  tliat  it  ever  was ;  I  never  doubted  tlie  young 
man's  conscientiousness;  I  never  questioned  the  young 
man's  ability  to  read  books  and  to  get  off  lessons ;  but  I 
say  now  wliat  I  said  at  the  beginning,  you  may  cover  him 
with  gold  medals  and  give  him  an  armful  of  certificates, 
but  he  will  never  persuade  a  congregation  that  he  is  called 
of  God  to  preach  the  gospel."  This  reply  is  perfectly 
sound  :  the  great  error  is  that  fitness  for  literary  pursuits 
is  not  distinguished  from  fitness  for  public  speaking.  We 
need  not  go  far  for  proofs  that  literature  and  eloquence 
are  not  interchangeable  terms  :  in  the  houses  of  parlia- 
ment you  will  find  the  most  learned  and  polished  men, 
who  are  quite  unable  to  express  themselves  with  perspicuity 
and  effect ;  yet,  if  as  Christian  youths  they  had  applied 
for  admission  to  one  of  our  colleges,  they  would  have  been 
instantly  admitted  and  would  have  passed  their  curriculum 
with  the  unanimous  and  cordial  applause  of  the  professors. 
The  minister,  whose  case  we  have  been  supposing,  awaits 
the  justification  of  time.  The  young  man  leaves  the  college 
well  supplied  with  the  most  commendatory  credentials,  and 
in  the  flush  of  academic  success  indulges  an  innocent  sneer 
at  the  expense  of  men  who  know  more  about  preaching  than 
they  know  about  the  differential  calculus.  The  parents 
and  friends  of  the  young  man  perhaps  triumph  over  what 
they  consider  must  be  the  disappointment  and  mortifica- 
tion of  the  minister  whose  judgment  has  been  so  signally 
dishonoured.  Still  the  minister  bides  his  time,  and  what 
is  the  upshot  ?  For  two  years  the  young  man  carries  his 
credentials  round  the  churches,  but  the  churches  never  give 
him  a  chance  of  settlement ;  the  young  man  then  discovers 
that  deacons  are  valgar  and  selfish,  and  quite  unfit  to  guide 
the  opinion  of  Christian  communities ;  for  another  year 


216      Ad  Clerurn :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

he  continues  his  melancholy  round  of  applications^  but 
nothing  in  the  way  of  a  settlement  is  offered.  People  say 
they  have  ^'  no  doubt  he  is  a  clever  man  in  his  own  way,'^ 
or  that  "  his  sermons  have  been  elaborately  prepared/^  or 
that  ^^he  is  more  fit  to  be  a  professor  than  a  preacher/^  the 
young  man^  however,  cannot  live  upon  these  compliments, 
and  therefore,  under  stress  of  various  kinds,  he  cannot 
resist  the  impression  that  "  the  system  is  all  wrong  to- 
gether," and  so  he  settles  down  into  shopkeeping  and 
churlishness.  Or  if  he  succeed  in  getting  a  settlement 
he  soon  becomes  uneasy;  he  says  that  his  people  don''t 
appreciate  him,  that  he  cannot  stoop  to  their  low  habits 
of  thinking,  and  that  he  is  open  to  an  invitation  to  another 
pulpit.  He  thinks  if  he  were  in  a  large  town  he  could 
do  better,  he  would  draw  his  own  class  around  him, 
literary  people  would  flock  around  his  pulpit,  and  he  would 
lead  the  highest  sentiment  of  the  community.  But,  no  ! 
It  won^t  do  !  He  stumbles,  falls,  lies  down,  grumbles,  and 
then  perishes  out  of  the  way.  Now  it  was  a  cruel  kindness 
to  urge  such  a  man  to  seek  admission  into  the  ministry. 
He  was  a  man  of  ability,  and  as  a  private  Christian  might 
have  been  of  much  service  in  the  church ;  but  his  friends 
sacrificed  him  to  an  unreasoning  if  not  an  ungodly  ambition. 
Let  me  at  this  point  strongly  advise  you  to  keep  back  as 
many  men  as  possible  from  the  ministry.  Of  course  where 
you  have  a  distinct  persuasion  of  a  young  man^s  fitness 
for  the  pulpit,  you  will  encourage  him  most  earnestly  to 
give  himself  to  needful  preparation ;  but  be  doubly  sure  of 
the  fitness  before  you  offer  him  the  least  assistance.  Where 
there  is  most  fitness,  there  will  often  be  most  self  distrust. 
2.  Another  class  of  unsuccessful  men  may  be  ironically 
described  as  hyper-super-intellectualistSfSom.ethmg,  in  spite 


Unsuccessful  Men.  217 

of  tlie  ugly  word_,  very  aerial  and  sublime.  These  magni- 
ficent and  unapproacliable  royalties,  tlironed  among  tlie 
stars,  and  clothed  with  clouds  of  many  colours,  expend 
their  lives  in  one  desperate  determination  to  say  something 
that  is  not  in  the  New  Testament.  The  moment  they  are 
about  to  put  one  word  of  gospel  into  their  sermons,  they 
recoil  from  the  vulgarity  as  from  a  temptation  to  be 
profane.  As  a  consequence  they  excel  in  not  preaching 
the  gospel.  They  delight  to  prove  to  their  pewholders  that 
they  "are  abreast  with  the  foremost  thinking  of  the  day  ;^^ 
they  refer  with  great  familiarity  to  "a  certain  modern 
school  of  thought,^^  and  with  infinite  skill  gibbet  neo- 
Platonists,  transcendentalists,  pantheists,  and  positivists, 
before  a  wondering  if  not  applauding  audience.  But  their 
chief  joy — O  their  sweet,  precious,  transporting  joy,  their 
joy  of  joys,  their  dancing,  screaming,  delirious  joy  ! — is  to 
discourse  upon  a  most  mysteriously  dangerous  individual 
called  Gomte.  When  a  reverend  snob  of  the  hyper-super 
class  can  bring  in  the  name  of  Gomte  he  is  sure  that  it 
will  instantly  show  the  greatness,  and  the  might,  and  the 
majesty,  and  the  glorious  glory  of  the  learned  minister. 
He  would  not  for  the  world  refer  to  Baxter,  or  Henry,  or 
Doddridge,  or  Watts ;  Owen,  and  Bates,  and  Charnock, 
and  Howe,  he  does  not  deign  to  know ; — he  knows  Gomte 
(as  far  at  least  as  translations  can  reveal  that  personage), 
and  is  not  that  the  last  reach  of  culture,  the  crowning 
point  of  attainment  ?  M.  Comte  himself  would  wonder  if  he 
could  know  how  many  magnificent  nobodies  conjure  with 
his  name.  It  is  of  no  consequence  that  not  a  soul  in  the 
awestruck  congregation  knows  whether  Gomte  is  the 
French  for  devil  or  the  Italian  for  an  angel,  the  one  thing 
to  be  sure  of  is  that  the  minister  is  "  abreast  with  the 


218      Ad  Clcruni :  Advices  to  a  Young  PreacJier. 

foremost  thinking  of  tlie  day^^;  as  to  saving  tlie  souls  of 
them  that  hear  him,  is  it  not  better  to  extinguish  an  absent 
speculator  than  to  save  an  unlettered  man  ?  Cultivated 
reason  can  have  but  one  answer  to  the  impertinent  inquiry. 
The  congregation  of  the  hyper-super  is  a  curious  medley, 
the  chief  feature  being  the  advanced  young  man  who 
belongs  to  the  new  Lyceum,  and  who  simpers  over  the 
top  of  the  penny  newspaper  that  in  his  opinion  the  day 
of  the  pulpit  is  over  for  ever.  This  is  a  very  formidable 
young  man ;  from  the  serene  heights  of  his  noble  culture 
he  could  not  think  of  descending  to  consult  so  ancient  a 
personage  as  his  father,  and  all  filial  duty  is  exhausted 
when  he  languidly  smiles  at  the  practical  suggestions  of 
his  mother.  The  young  man  loves  to  hear  of  Gomte, 
Comte  is  so  bold  a  fellow  and  so  very  common-sense ;  he 
dotes  on  Comte,  he  dreams  about  Comte,  and  if  anybody 
should  innocently  suggest  in  a  tremulous  and  deprecatory 
tone  that  he  "  is  becoming  quite  a  Comtist,'^  his  manly 
bosom  heaves,  his  Abashing  eyes  blaze  with  double  bright- 
ness, and  his  towering  head  stoops  lest  he  should  injure 
the  ceiling  which  is  not  more  than  seven  feet  higher  than 
himself.  The  reverend  snob  glories  in  the  youth :  he 
looks  on  him  with  pride ;  and  in  grateful  recollection  of 
"Vis  intellectual  presence  comforts  himself  that  he  will 
draw  around  his  pulpit  the  genius  and  the  culture  of  the 
neighbourhood.  How  much  genius  and  culture  there  may 
be  gathered  around  his  Comtean  pulpit,  it  is  impossible 
in  consequence  of  their  invisibility  to  say.  But,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  weary,  troubled,  sorrowing  men  do  not  gather 
round  it ;  people  who  are  tempted,  overborne,  crushed  in 
heart,  do  not  gather  round  it ;  and  in  about  twelve  months 
the  reverend  lecturer  on  Gomtism  gathers  his  neat  little 


Unsuccessful  Men.  219 

essays  togetlier  and  looks  out  wistfully  for  another  charge. 
The  common  opinion  of  such  a  man  is  that  he  is  '^  dt  for 
a  college  " ;  alas,  how  many  distinguished  geniuses  there 
are  at  this  moment  waiting  for  the  shoes  of  honoured 
professcjrs  !  You  will  observe  that  in  all  this  description 
of  a  certain  class  of  unsuccessful  men  I  do  not  say  one 
word  Against  learning,  culture,  or  mental  ability  ;  my 
remarks  are  directed  against  the  chilling  pedantry  which 
works  at  so  remote  a  distance  from  the  sin  and  sorrow  and 
hunger  of  the  soul.  In  view  of  this  shocking  mockery 
of  all  that  is  honest  and  effective  in  Christian  preaching, 
let  me  pray  you  to  be  ever  on  your  guard  against  the 
temptation  to  preach  what  are  mistakenly  called  ''  great 
sermons '' ;  don^t  preach  for  the  gratification  of  your  own 
vanity,  but  for  the  salvation  of  all  who  hear  you ;  don't 
preach,  I  once  more  intreat  you,  to  the  two  or  three  most 
intelligent  or  most  pretentious  men  in  your  congregation, 
but  speak  to  the  common  heart  of  humanity  with  the 
pathos  of  unaffected  sympathy ;  and  the  blessings  of  many 
will  cause  the  cup  of  your  reward  to  overflow.  You  may 
preach  with  such  ostentationof  learning  as  to  excite  wonder 
in  the  vulgar  and  disgust  in  the  devout ;  you  may  win  the 
reputation  of  being  a  clever  man,  who  is  not  afraid  of 
hard  texts  and  difficult  subjects ;  but  no  heart  will  ever 
own  you  as  a  messenger  from  God.  What  do  we  want 
with  all  this  so  called  great  preaching  t  Do  you  say  we 
are  obliged  to  occupy  a  certain  time,  and  that  to  do  so  we 
must  avail  ourselves  of  references  and  quotations  for  which 
we  ourselves  care  nothing  ?  I  have  an  instant  and,  to  my 
own  mind,  a  sufficient  answer  to  this  suggestion :  it  ougld 
not  to  be  necessary  slavishly  to  occupy  exactly  so  much 
time ;  we  should  take  our  time  not  from  the  clock,  but  from 


220      Ad  Clenim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier. 

the  lieart_,  and^  according  to  tlie  inspiration  wliicli  may  liave 
been  granted  to  earnest  prayer,  speak  to  those  who  trust 
us  as  God's  servants.  How  good  it  is,  when  the  heart  is 
weary  and  the  sight  of  the  soul  fails  through  long  watching, 
to  hear  a  preacher  who  speaks  simply  and  lovingly  the  word 
of  the  Saviour  !  How  tuneful,  how  soothing  !  But  when 
a  man  is  aiming  at  something  that  lies  far  from  the  trouble 
which  darkens  upon  us,  when  he  meets  us  with  sentences 
artistically  turned,  in  which  he  proclaims  nothing  but  his 
own  vanity,  we  shrink  with  mortification  and  anger  from 
his  sapless,  mocking  ministry.  Nor  is  it  we  that  shrink, 
but  the  dishonoured  Spirit  of  Christ  that  is  in  us;  the  voice 
of  "  the  stranger"  torments  and  insults  the  heart.  Be  you 
a  man  who  reveals  and  exalts  the  mystery  of  the  Cross  ! 

3.  A  third  class  of  unsuccessful  men  may  be  described 
as  consisting  of  ministers  who  regard  ijreacliing  as  quite 
a  secondary  consideration;  ministers  they  may  be,  but 
preachers  certainly  not.  You  will  express  surprise  at  the 
statement  that  men  so  devoid  of  common-sense  can  be 
found  in  the  Christian  ministry ;  but  your  surprise  will 
decline  as  your  observation  extends.  As  the  class  is 
somewhat  diversified,  it  may  be  necessary  to  particularise 
a  little.  One  of  its  representative  men  figures  conspi- 
cuously at  the  public  library,  and  is  generally  seen  with 
a  new  book  and  a  bundle  of  newspapers  under  his  arm. 
He  lives  on  pew-rents,  but  certainly  not  among  pews  ; 
he  has  a  neat  little  world  of  his  own,  well  stocked  with 
heretical  books  and  other  delicacies  ;  occasionally  he  may 
so  far  condescend  to  acknowledge  his  pastoral  relations,  so 
called,  as  to  turn  a  telescope  on  that  dim  speck  of  distant 
matter  which  he  mistakenly  denominates  his  chapel ; 
otherwise,    except  on  well   known    quarter-days,    he   is 


Unsuccessful  Men.  221 

grandly  independent  of  his  people.  His  people^  in  fact, 
are  very  mucli  like  a  necessary  and  remunerative  nuisance ; 
tliey  read  nothing,  they  go  nowhere,  they  are  common- 
place and  vexatiously  uninteresting,  a  very  sore  trial,  in 
short,  to  any  man  with  a  taste  for  reading.  Another  re- 
presentative man  of  this  class  is  known  for  his  apprecia- 
tion of  good  society  and  a  strong  liking  for  fine  scenery. 
When  he  left  college  he  said  he  would  not  settle  except 
amongst  a  refined  people,  a  delicate  people,  who  call  hell 
hades  and  dilute  damnation  into  condemnation ;  he  could 
never  do  with  vulgar  people  who  bluntly  call  a  spade  a 
spade;  he  could  only  do  with  shoemakers  when  they 
described  their  places  of  business  as  boot-halls,  and  he 
always  referred  to  the  butter-merchant  as  one  who  was  in 
"  the  provision  line.^'  As  to  saving  the  souls  of  those  to 
whom  he  preached,  he  would  have  recoiled  from  the 
suggestion,  except  the  said  souls  could  be  saved  by  distant 
references  to  moral  intuitions  and  innate  ideas ;  if  they 
chose  to  be  saved  from  hades,  Gehenna,  or  sheol  by 
that  way,  he  had  no  strong  objection,  for  their  religion 
might  then  become  a  suitable  frame  for  the  picture  of 
their  social  graces.  When  he  settled  in  the  pastorate  his 
boast  was  that  all  his  people  belonged  to  the  uppermost 
stratum  of  the  middle  class ;  and  this  he  said  with  the  air 
of  one  who  had  made  great  sacrifices  for  his  principles, 
intimating  thereby  that  but  for  conscientious  scruples  he 
might  have  been  surrounded  by  the  aristocracy  of  position 
and  genius.  This  very  refined  brother  seldom  spoke 
above  a  subdued  whisper,  and  when  in  a  forgetful  moment 
he  shook  his  forefinger,  in  sign  of  earnestness,  he  received 
with  thankfulness  the  solaces  of  those  who  were  sure  that 
he  must  have  exhausted  himself.     He  heard  with  shudder- 


222     Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Treaclier. 

ing  disgust  of  preacliers  wlio  spoke  in  a  loud,  clear  tone, 
and  occasionally  lifted  up  botli  hands  in  tlie  pulpit ;  they 
were  wanting  in  taste,  they  were  pandering  to  the  wishes 
of  the  ignorant  mob,  they  were  lowering  the  dignity  of 
the  pulpit,  in  short  they  had  proved  themselves  to  be  very 
despicable  persons.  The  career  of  this  dear  brother  was 
short  and  not  merry ;  he  was  so  very  super  refined  that 
even  his  most  longsuffering  friends  lost  patience  with 
him,  and  those  who  clipped  their  own  words  most  gradu- 
ally grew  into  the  conviction  that  he  was  a  heartless 
snob.  This  made  it  very  difficult  for  the  dear  gentleman  ; 
he  knew  that  he  was  a  first-class  traveller  who  could 
afford  only  a  third-class  ticket,  and  the  look  of  annihilat- 
ing contempt,  with  which  he  took  his  seat  in  a  third-class 
carriage  confounded  the  ticket  collectors  and  sobered 
several  of  his  fellow  travellers.  A  cruel  providence  seemed 
to  dog  his  elegant  footsteps,  and  but  for  one  consolation  • 
he  would  have  fallen  into  despair, — the  consolation  that 
all  his  mischance  befel  him  because  he  would  not  stoop 
to  the  habits  of  the  common  herd  !  He  persuaded  him- 
self that  if  he  would  only  throw  off  the  gentleman,  and  do 
as  other  people  did,  success  would  flow  upon  him  like  a 
river,  and  he  would  be  the  first  man  of  his  day.  But  the 
sacrifice  was  too  great, — to  the  last  he  remained  by  far 
too  refined  for  so  disorderly  a  world  as  this.  You  will 
not  ask  whether  it  is  impossible  for  refinement  to  succeed 
in  the  ministry ;  you  know  perfectly  well  that  I  am  not 
condemning  or  ridiculing  refinement,  but  rather  its  de- 
testable simulation :  there  is  no  necessary  discrepancy 
between  refinement  and  strength ;  on  the  contrary  true 
refinement  is  power,  as  certainly  as  pedantry  is  feebleness. 
Of  course,  we  must  be  particular  as  to  the  relation  be- 


Unsuccessful  Men.  223 

tween  tlie  fineness  of  the  weapon  and  the  special  quality 
of  the  work  which  it  is  intended  to  do ;  a  razor,  for  ex- 
ample, has  a  keen  edge  and  a  polished  surface,  but  no 
razor  will  ever  fell  a  tree  or  dress  a  beam  :  on  the  other 
hand  an  axe  may  be  sharp  and  strong,  yet  it  might  bo 
inconvenient  to  use  it  for  shaving.  So  with  men,  and  so 
specially  with  ministers.  We  must  not  be  too  fine  for 
our  work.  We  must  so  far  go  away  from  our  own  little 
preferences,  as  to  live  for  the  advantage  of  others ;  we 
must,  in  effect,  say  to  our  hearers  ^^  this  is  not  for  my 
own  gratification  but  for  your  benefit,^^  and  by  so  much 
as  the  spirit  of  the  cross  regulates  our  ministry,  will  the 
blessing  of  reward  crown  our  labours. 

In  thus  endeavouring  to  describe  some  of  the  unsuccess- 
ful men  whom  I  have  known  more  or  less,  my  object  is  to 
point  you  to  the  unchangeable  conditions  of  a  permanently 
successful  ministry.  If  in  your  heart  of  hearts  you  do 
not  love  the  work  of  preaching  the  gospel  infinitely  above 
all  other  work,  you  must  fail;  for  this  work  must  be 
either  the  most  thrilling  joy  or  the  most  unendurable 
torment  which  any  man  can  experience.  I  shall  assume 
then  that  you  love  it ;  that  you  love  it  supremely ;  that 
without  it  you  would  be  wretched  and  hopeless.  The  in- 
stant inference  from  this  all-absorbing  love  is  that  you 
will  study  the  best  methods  of  bringing  the  gospel  to  bear 
upon  the  sin,  the  sorrow,  and  the  aspirations  of  the 
human  heart.  The  gospel  will  not  be  to  you  an  abstract 
science,  or  a  recondite  theory  ;  it  will  be  God^s  message 
to  the  disquiet  and  need  of  sinful  and  hungering  souls, 
and  your  constant  anxiety  will  be  to  interpret  and  apply 
it  accordingly.  Under  such  a  hallowed  and  constraining 
inspiration,  you  will  not  allow  yourself  to  be  driven  to  a 


224      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

position  that  is  remote  from  the  most  pressing  need  of 
your  hearers ;  you  will  rather  suffer  the  imputation  of 
being  an  unlearned  and  ignorant  man  than  run  the  risk 
of  concealing  any  truth  that  tells  immediately  upon 
spiritual  character  and  destiny.  You  will  give  men  to  feel 
that  you  hnow  them,  that  you  live  for  them,  that  your 
sympathy  flows  along  the  whole  course  of  their  experience; 
and  you  will  show  that  all  this  knowledge  and  devotion 
on  your  part  arises  entirely  from  your  incessant  and 
adoring  communion  with  Jesus  Christ.  To  know  Jesus 
Christ  is  to  know  man  ;  to  be  as  Jesus  Christ  was,  will 
be  to  draw  all  men  unto  you.  There  will  undoubtedly 
arise  temptations  to  discuss  speculative  subjects,  to  show 
off  your  own  talent,  and  to  gratify  your  own  tastes  ;  but 
you  must  break  such  temptations  upon  the  cross,  and 
out  of  your  own  crucifixion  bring  a  richer  tenderness  to 
bear  upon  the  spiritual  condition  of  your  hearers.  Be- 
lieve me,  in  proportion  as  a  sermon  is  a  mere  effort  of  the 
intellect  will  it  be  a  failure,  and  in  proportion  as  a  sermon 
is  an  expression  of  the  heart  will  it  succeed  in  doing  good. 
This  leads  me  to  repeat  that,  to  be  truly  effective,  a  sermon 
must  bepar^  of  the  p  readier  himself;  when  it  is  so  it  will 
be  delivered  naturally,  with  unaffected  pathos,  and  with  a 
nobler  earnestness  than  can  be  secured  by  the  most  artful 
preparation.  Better  not  to  preach,  than  not  to  preach 
from  the  heart ;  better  to  stand  before  your  congregation 
dumb  and  confounded,  than  to  talk  merely  for  talking^s 
sake;  when  you  are  true  enough  to  do  this,  you  will  be 
strong  enough  to  put  to  flight  most  of  the  difficulties 
that  interpose  between  you  and  the  highest  success. 

You  will  of  course  remind  me  that  many  ministers 
known  to  be  most  spiritually  minded    and  devoted  to 


Unsuccessful  Men.  225 

their  work^  zealously  pursuing  what  may  be  called  the 
most  intensely  moral  purpose  of  the  ministry,  have  failed 
to  secure  anything  like  ■  distinguished  success.  You  can 
name  such  godly  men  in  quick  succession,  and  prove  how 
far  short  their  ministry  has  fallen.  All  this  I  allow,  as  a 
simple  matter  of  fact,  and  yet  the  ground  of  my  exhorta- 
tion is  untouched.  You  must  remember  that  I  have 
never  insisted  upon  goodness  as  the  sole  condition  of  a 
successful  ministry.  The  goodness  must  be  vitalised; 
goodness  must,  in  a  word,  become  virtue, — strength, 
force,  activity ;  goodness  must  have  manly  faculty,  an  eye 
that  brightens  and  melts,  a  heart  that  rejoices  and 
saddens,  with  all  the  sudden  changefulness  of  the  world^s 
daily  drama.  There  is  a  goodness  that  is  negative 
rather  than  positive,  contemplative  rather  than  active-;  a 
goodness  that  must  be  inquired  into,  before  its  existence 
can  be  distinctly  recognised  :  on  the  other  hand,  there  is 
a  goodness  modestly  self  affirming,  full  of  life,  revealing 
itself  in  a  thousand  delicate  insinuations  and  in  many 
public  proofs  of  power;  a  goodness  that  becomes  genial, 
tender,  severe,  judicial,  pitiful,  with  a  rapidity  of  alterna- 
tion that  may  easily  be  mistaken  by  the  superficial  for 
inconsistency, — a  goodness  that  rules  the  intellect,  by 
first  correctly  determining  its  province  and  compass,  and 
that  rules  the  life  by  a  gentleness  that  is  mightier  than 
the  most  studied  austerity.  No  amount  of  training  can 
impart  this  living  goodness  to  any  man ;  it  cannot  be 
taught  in  the  schools;  it  cannot  be  assumed  by  an  artist ; 
it  is  the  holy  and  sublime  individuality  wrought  in  the 
soul  by  the  Holy  Ghost :  and  where  it  is  absent  there  can 
be  no  true,  far  reaching,  and  long  continuing  service  for 
Jesus  Christ.     I  will  not  allow  that  a  man  is  good,  simply 

Q 


226       Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

•because  he  prays^  reads  the  Bible^  and  engages  in  regular 
religious  exercises;  he  must  have  life^ — not  life  in  his 
bookshelves,  his  outlines,  his  sermon  book,  or  his  pro- 
fessional desk,  but  life  in  his  soul — the  very  life  of  life, 
the  very  eternity  of  God.  When  a  man  is  delivered  from 
himself,  with  all  the  petty  considerations  and  tyrannies 
that  torment  the  ill  kept  soul,  and  centred  in  Christ, 
when  his  supreme  passion  is  love  of  his  Master,  he  is 
good,  and  his  goodness  is  pungent  as  salt,  purifying  as 
fire.  Brother,  are  we  thus  deeply  and  lovingly  good  ? 
Not  ascetics,  not  churls,  not  scorners,  but  saintly,  gentle, 
heavenly  minded?  O  Holy  Spirit,  bring  us  evermore 
under  Thy  great  power  :  work  in  us  all  the  mystery  of 
Thy  holy  purpose ;  deliver  us  from  the  harsh  exactions  of 
the  mere  letter,  and  prostrate  us  under  the  better 
dominion  of  the  living  Spirit :  so  enlighten  us,  so  enrich 
us,  so  inspire  us,  that  we  may  be  amongst  the  simplest, 
the  wisest,  the  strongest,  of  our  blessed  Master^s  servants. 


XY. 

BEWAEE   OF  ME^. 

Take  this  advice^  and  your  steps  will  be  ordered  wisely. 
As  a  young  man  you  will  naturally  take  a  liopeful  view  of 
everybody,  and  be  disposed  to  give  your  confidence  with- 
out asking  much,  in  the  way  of  indemnification.  It  is  not 
pleasant  to  me  to  awaken  suspicion  in  an  unsophisticated 
mind  ;  yet  as  every  man's  experience  should  be  regarded 
as  a  fund  for  the  benefit  of  society,  I  must  force  myself 
to  point  out  a  few  traits  of  character  which  you  may  ex- 
pect to  meet  in  the  course  of  your  ministry,  and  which 
will  invariably  signify  what  is  bad.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  that  the  Christian  ministry  developed  human 
character  in  a  way  strictly  peculiar  to  itself.  The  feel- 
ing subsisting  between  pastor  and  people  differs  from 
almost  every  other  feeling.  The  minister  enjoys  the 
freedom  of  his  people's  hearts,  if  they  be  true  to  him ; 
where  other  counsellors  would  be  treated  with  stubborn- 
ness he  is  met  in  a  spirit  of  conciliation ;  himself  the  re- 
presentative of  the  Cross,  he  is  regarded  as  bringing 
with  him  all  the  calming  and  rectifying  considerations 
which  attach  to  the  highest  form  of  self-crucifixion ;  hence 
men  will  often  yield  to  his  word  through  veneration  for 
the  blessed  Master  whose  interests  he  is  supposed  ever 
to  represent.  Under  such  circumstances  they  will  either 
show  the  very  best  aspects  of  their   character,   or  they 

Q  2 


228       Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

will  cloke  tliemselves  under  the  most  detestable  simula- 
tion. As  I  liave  undertaken  to  deal  with  some  of  the 
darker  shades  of  character  that  will  surprise  you  in  the 
course  of  your  ministry,  I  think  it  right  to  claim  your 
attention  to  a  preliminary  word  on  the  other  side.  After 
a  course  of  pastoral  service  extending  over  more  than 
seventeen  years,  it  would  be  unjust  on  my  part  if  I  did 
not  most  gratefully  and  cordially  acknowledge  that  there 
are  in  nonconformist  churches  many  most  noble-minded 
men.  I  have  been  made  their  deep  debtor  in  many  in- 
stances ;  on  occasions  without  number  I  have  witnessed 
their  steadfastness  in  the  faith,  their  self-denying  and 
zealous  perseverance  in  Christian  service,  and  their  high- 
minded  honour  in  cases  in  which  by  dexterous  tempor- 
ising they  could  have  escaped  difficulty  and  loss.  Were 
I  to  commit  myself  to  a  pourtrayal  of  the  excellencies 
which  have  come  directly  under  my  own  observation,  I 
know  not  when  the  sunny  picture  would  be  completed ; 
you  will  not  understand  me,  therefore,  as  writing  in  a 
cynical  or  unthankful  spirit,  but  in  a  spirit  of "  honest 
criticism,  without  fear  and  without  malice.  It  is  with 
deep  reluctance  that  I  put  aside  for  a  moment  the  happy 
memories  which  form  by  far  the  largest  part  of  the 
ministerial  scenes  through  which  I  have  passed  ;  it  pains 
me  to  ask  even  one  friend  to  stand  aside  until  I  point  out 
the  blemishes  which  disfigure  this  character  or  that,  yet 
I  must  as  your  guide  be  faithful,  and  lead  you  through 
shaded  valleys  when  I  would  gladly  linger  with  you 
where  the  light  is  brightest. 

In  the  course  of  my  ministry  I  have  met  with  men  who 
have  concealed  their  true  dispositions  imder  a  thick  coat- 
ing of  false  amiahility.     In  my  early  ministerial  course 


Beware  of  Men,  229 

I  was  mucli  victimised  by  smiling  men.  Tlie  young 
heart  refused  to  disbelieve  the  sincerity  of  a  pleasant 
voice  or  a  cheerful  countenance.  I  remember  one  man, 
a  minister  too,  who  concealed  the  heart  of  a  wolf  under  the 
wool  of  a  lamb ;  and  as  his  characteristics  were  so  broad, 
I  may  remark  upon  him  as  the  type  of  the  men  whom  I 
have  now  more  particularly  in  view.  His  great  weapon 
was  flattery,  and  his  most  successful  flatteries  were  lies. 
He  sought  to  open  his  way  in  society  by  the  key  of  in- 
discriminate praise.  Hardworking  men  were  cheered 
by  his  commendations,  unsuspecting  women  were  won  to 
confidence  by  ^is  beguiling  attentions,  poor  men  were 
flattered  by  his  patronage,  and  rich  men  were  occasion- 
ally befooled  by  his  compliments.  His  face  was  always 
putting  on  a  smile  which  he  intended  to  be  fascinating, 
and  his  voice  was  artistically  softened  to  suit  the  ear  of 
his  devoted  prey.  In  fact,  he  called  himself  ^^  an  artist," 
and  prided  himself  on  successes  which  honest  men  in- 
stinctively regarded  as  crimes.;  with  him,  to  fail  in  self- 
promotion  was  an  unpardonable  sin. 

^'  Man,^'  he  would  say  to  me  with  a  feigned  and  mock- 
ing laugh,  the  recollection  of  which  makes  me  shudder, 
^^you  should  not  speak  out  so  boldly,  you  should  do  as 
I  do  if  you  would  get  influence  in  the  denomination .■*' 

When  I  repelled  the  proposition  with  indignant  disdain 
he  would  repeat  his  horrid  laugh,  and  say, — 

"  That  is  all  very  well,  but  I  have  a  cunning  way  of 
getting  behind  fellows,  and  warming  them  up  into  my 
notions;  I  go  in  for  the  artistic  side  of  life, — I  never 
oSend  a  man  as  long  as  I  can  get  anything  out  of  him.-*^ 

''  Then  I  hate  your  policy,"  said  I;  "there  ^a  nothing  I 
would  not  do  to  get  at  the  truth." 


230       Ad  Cleriim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier, 

^^Don^t  mistake  me/^  lie  would  add  in  an  altered  voice ; 
"  I  know  what  I  am  about  with  these  fine  fellows  :  don^t 
you  see  how  I  do  ?  I  smile  upon  them  and  get  everything 
out  of  them ;  but  if  they  turn  awkward  in  my  hand,  I 
soon  let  them  feel  the  poleaxe:  men  tell  me  things  in 
confidence^,  and  I  assure  you  it  is  a  fine  thing  to  have  a 
sting  in  your  box  for  every  man,  it  keeps  him  quiet  you 
know." 

'■^  You  wretch  ! "  said  I ;  ^'  that  is  the  creed  of  a  mur- 
derer;" and  from  that  day  I  abhorred  and  disowned 
him. 

Yet  you  will  be  surprised  how  that  man  holds  on  his 
crooked  course  to  this  day,  and  how  many  honest  men  he 
holds  in  his  well  arranged  but  most  cruel  coils.  His  de- 
luded victims  have  told  me  he  "shows  such  a  Christian 
spirit,"  that  "he  never  says  an  unkind  word  against  me," 
that  he  "  holds  out  the  white  flag  of  truce  ";  and  I  sufi*er 
under  the  imputation  of  being  less  magnanimous  than 
he  !  I  glory  in  the  imputation,  knowing  the  falseness  of 
the  man ;  God  has  given  me  power  to  look  into  the  deep 
den  of  the  wretched  heart,  and  truly  it  is  full  of  un- 
clean and  venomous  reptiles.  This  is  the  language  of  the 
most  dispassionate  charity.  I  write  it  in  the  interests  of 
truth  and  of  social  honour,  and  with  the  sobriety  and 
self-r^traint  of  a  man  who  appeals  to  the  judgment  seat 
of  Christ.  I  am  aware  how  difficult  it  is  to  maintain 
a  position  like  this  by  mere  argument;  you  can  hardly 
believe  in  the  possibility  of  such  dissimulation ;  you  feel 
that  my  statement  must  be,  perhaps  unconsciously,  ex- 
aggerated by  resentment;  your  love  of  truth,  your  honour, 
your  charity,  will  not  allow  you  to  believe  that  any  pro- 
fessedly Christian  man  could  act  in  the  way  described.     I 


Beiceire  af  Men.  231 

do  not  complain  of  your  incredulity ;  it  is  natural,  and  it 
is  creditable.  Meet  me  ten  years  hence,  and  we  shall 
talk  on  more  equal  terms.  In  the  meantime  do  be  careful 
not  to  commit  yourself  to  men  on  the  mere  ground  of 
their  amiability.  I  have  suffered  more  from  simulated 
amiability  than  from  any  other  cause ;  it  has  betrayed  my 
confidence,  it  has  lured  me  into  dangerous  paths,  it  has 
disappointed  my  best  expectations,  it  has  wounded  and 
exasperated  my  most  generous  sensibilities.  Think  of  a 
man  calling  you  his  "  dear  pastor,^^  and  then  condemning 
you  to  your  friends  or  to  strangers;  or  think  of  him 
praying  for  you  as  '^  Thy  dear  and  honoured  servant  our 
beloved  pastor,'^  and  then  complaining  that  your  saWy 
is  too  large ;  or  think  of  him  pledging  the  most  cordial 
friendship,  and  avowing  the  most  entire  disinterestedness 
in  a  trade  transaction,  and  all  the  while  having  ten  per 
cent  upon  all  that  he  does  for  you ;  or  think  of  him  in- 
volving you  in  deep  obligations  by  making  you  the  most 
solemn  promises,  and  when  you  ask  him  to  redeem  his 
promises  telling  you  that  now  your  friendship  must  cease. 
Can  you  bear  any  more  ?  Then  think'  of  oJBBce-bearers 
wishing  you  a  happy  holiday,  and  immediately  summoning 
your  hearers  to  take  counsel  as  to  the  best  way  of  getting 
rid  of  your  ministry.  But  I  forbear.  Such  things  have 
happened  in  the  experience  of  ministers  whom  I  have 
known,  and  for  that  reason  I  feel  that  it  is  quite  within 
my  duty  to  put  you  on  your  guard  against  the  amiability 
which  may  conceal  the  worst  degrees  of  evil  mindedness. 
You  will  not  misunderstand  me  as  saying  anything  against 
amiability ;  amiability  is  a  Christian  grace,  and  as  such 
should  be  cultivated  and  displayed  in  all  the  intercourse 
of  life :  but  in  proportion  to  its  value  is  the  temptation 


232       Ad  Glerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

to  its  perYersion ;   were  it  less  Divine  it  wonld  be  less 
enlisted  in  the  service  of  tlie  devil. 

In  the  course  of  my  ministry  I  have  met  with  men 
who  have  tuished  to  enjoy  the  goodwill  of  all  parties.  Such 
men  ought  not  to  be  spoken  of  indiscriminately,  yet  it  is 
not  easy  to  classify  them.  One  section  may  be  described 
as  simply  timid, — another  as  selfish  timeservers.  The  timid 
man  is  very  difficult  to  understand.  In  the  sunshine  he 
will  be  as  bold  as  a  lion,  he  will  even  venture  to  talk 
about  ''  nailing  his  colours  to  the  mast  '^;  and  in  private, 
where  no  one  but  the  minister  hears  him,  he  will  go  any 
length  in  committing  himself  to  the  ministerial  cause. 
Nor  do  I  think  him  insincere  in  doing  so ;  he  is  faithful 
to  his  mood ;  his  full  intention  is  to  take  the  very  next  lion 
by  the  beard  and  to  slay  the  beast  with  a  stroke,  yet  when 
the  said  lion  puts  in  an  unexpected  appearance  the  timid 
man  prudently  gets  out  of  the  way  with  all  dispatch.  I 
have  known  some  men  who  really  could  not  fight ;  men  of 
distinguished  excellence  of  character,  willing  to  give  any 
amount  of  money  and  to  render  any  extent  of  service, 
provided  there  be  no  controversy;  they  would  hardly 
contend  even  for  the  right,  they  would  give  for  it,  worlc 
for  it,  pray  for  it,  but  never  fight  for  it.  If  the  minister 
came  into  collision  with  any  of  the  people,  his  timid  sup- 
porters would  quietly  move  off  to  the  seaside  until  the 
result  was  known;  if  the  minister  felt  himself  called  upon 
to  engage  in  unpopular  controversy,  the  said  friends 
would  never  be  found  at  his  side ;  but  if  he  succeeded  in 
turning  the  popular  current  into  his  favour  they  would 
boldly  acknowledge  that  controversy  has  its  uses,  and 
that  Christian  ministers  are  bound  to  contend  earnestly 
for  the  faith  once  delivered  unto  the  saints.     They  will 


Beiuare  of  Men.  233 

go  even  farther:  if  public  excitement  be  turned  in  favour 
of  tlie  minister,  if  be  become  the  hero  of  the  hour,  if 
newspapers  extend  his  reputation,  and  if  great  men  give 
honour  to  his  name,  the  timid  friends  who  deeply  felt 
the  necessity  for  sea  aix  at  the  beginning  of  the  fight  will 
courageously  suggest  in  a  very  private  meeting  whether  a 
testimonial  ought  not  to  be  presented  to  the  champion  of 
great  principles.  And  in  both  cases  the  timid  friends 
will  be  quite  sincere;  the  simple  fact  is  they  cannot 
overcome  their  natural  timidity,  they  cannot  bring  their 
moral  courage  abreast  of  their  moral  impulses  |  to  tuill  is 
present  with  them,  but  how  to  perform  they  fiind  not.  I 
have  often  had  occasion  to  hear  of  the  unhappy  conse- 
quences of  defective  courage,  especially  in  the  working 
out  of  the  most  republican  forms  of  ecclesiastical  life. 
Take  the  case  of  an  Independent  church  in  which  there  is 
some  division  of  opinion  upon  an  important  question, 
and  the  course  of  events  will  probably  be  as  follows  :  a 
few  talkative,  self  confident,  and  pertinacious  individuals 
will  lead  the  opposition ;  around  them  will  be  gathered 
half-a-dozen  yoaths  (apprentices,  clerks,  and  errand-boys) 
who  have  studied  the  art  of  impertinence  in  what  are 
called  ^^  mutual  improvement  societies,''^  and  who  are  just 
eloquent  enough  to  cry  out  "hear,  hear,^^  and  "fair  play,^' 
when  the  elder  opponents  are  being  hard  driven ;  when 
such  a  state  of  afiairs  arises,  nearly  every  man  of  intelli- 
gence and  good  feeling  T^ill  absent  himself  from  the 
church  meeting;  men  and  women  who  are  desirous  to 
cultivate  spiritual  mindedness,  and  who  wish  the  church 
to  be  the  centre  of  their  happiest  associations,  will  not 
subject  themselves  to  the  annoyance  and  exasperation  of 
carping  and  malicious  criticism ; — hence  it  may  be  per- 


23-4       Ad  Gleriim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

fectly  possible  to  pass  a  resolution  at  a  churcli  meeting, 
and  to  pass  it  unanimously,  from  wliicli  all  tlie  educated, 
refined,  and  earnest  members  of  tbe  cliurcli  most  strongly 
and  determinedly  dissent.  You  will  say  tbis  is  a  most 
anomalous  state  of  affairs,  and  I  allow  it ;  yet  it  is  matter 
of  fact,  and  admits,  I  tbink,  of  easy  explanation.  In 
proportion  as  any  man  lives  a  deeply  spiritual  life  will  be 
sbrink  from  frivolous  debate,  and  especially  from  offering 
opposition  to  tbe  Cbristian  ministry;,  be  willbaveno  taste 
for  resolutions  and  counter-resolutions,  for  committees 
and  subcommittees,  for  amendments  and  riders ;  be  bas 
a  nobler  and  diviner  idea  of  cburcb  life,  and  notbing  will 
tempt  bim  from  bis  bigb  eminence  to  mingle  in  tbe  dusty 
frays  wbicb  occasionally  disgrace  tbe  working  out  of 
ecclesiastical  republicanism.  Tbis  is,  on  some  grounds, 
to  be  regretted;  tbe  minister  often  suffers  most  painful 
injury  by  it ;  be  is  left  in  tbe  bands  of  a  few  men  wbo  are 
quite  capable  of  driving  rougbly  over  all  tbe  sensibilities 
tbat  bave  been  refined  by  bigb  education  and  deep  com- 
munion witb  tbe  Spirit  of  trutb,  and  wbilst  be  may  bave 
tbe  sympatby  of  tbe  largest  and  best  portion  of  bis 
people,  be  is  left  to  smart  under  an  official  resolution 
wbicb  may  bave  all  tbe  efiect  of  a  virtual  falsebood.  You 
will  say  tbat  tbe  men  wbo  could  pass  sucb  a  resolution 
ougbt  not  to  be  in  tbe  cburcb ;  tbis  is  true,  but  unfortu- 
nately we  bave  to  sufier  from  facts  and  not  to  discuss 
opinions.  Witb  all  tbe  supposed  care  witb  wbicb  tbe 
gates  of  cburcb  membersbip  are  guarded,  low  minded 
and  wortbless  men  do  secure  public  standing,  and  as  tbey 
are  men  wbo  bave  notbing  to  lose  tbey  are  often  reckless 
in  tbeir  opposition.  Tbey  regard  tbe  cburcb  as  a  kind  of 
debating  club ;  tbeir  piety  is  limited  to  impious  discus- 


Beware  of  Men,  235 

sions;  tliey  tliink  tlie  cliurcli  is  dead  if  a  stirring  contro- 
versy is  not  proceeding,  and  that  tlie  world  is  in  mortal 
danger  of  damnation  if  tlie  ballot  box  and  tlie  sub- 
committee are  not  in  constant  requisition.  Rely  upon  it, 
these  are  not  timid  men;  tbey  are  rather  what  the  apostle 
Peter  describes  as  '^  natural  brute  beasts  made  to  be 
taken  and  destroyed/'  ^I  refer  to  them,  though  with 
infinite  repugnance,  merely  to  show  how  little  the 
minister  has  to  hope  for  from  timid  suj^porters.  The 
coarse  men  will  always  be  foremost,  to  them  a  fight  is  a 
revival,  a  secession  is  a  means  of  grace,  and  a  change  of 
ministry  is  a  gracious  device  of  Providence.  Now, 
between  the  very  boisterous  and  the  very  timid  men 
there  is  a  class  that  attempts  to  please  all  parties ;  the 
members  of  this  class  are  often  very  clever ;  by  a  nod 
they  can  encourage  the  opposition,  by  a  smile  they  can 
cheer  the  timid,  by  a  shake  of  the  hand  they  can 
strengthen  the  minister,  and  by  a  shake  of  the  head  they 
can  aid  those  who  are  seeking  to  drive  the  minister  away. 
There  is  undoubtedly  great  versatility  of  power  in  all 
this,  and  the  most  perfect  security  too ;  for  who  can 
publish  a  nod  ?  who  can  report  a  smile  as  an  item  of 
denominational  intelligence  ?  what  is  the  practical  value 
of  a  shake  of  the  hand  ?  and  how  many  contradictory 
ways  are  there  of  shaking  a  head  that  has  nothing  in  it  ? 
The  all-pleasers  do  not  commit  themselves  by  speech  or 
writing,  they  express  themselves  with  a  significance 
which  admits  of  no  repetition,  and  defend  themselves  by 
a  look  of  surprise  which  may  be  made  to  mean  anything 
the  observer  pleases.  This  manifestation  of  character 
will  often  distress  you.  As  a  man  of  God,  you  will 
demand  truth,  honour,  coui'age,  and  'individuality  of  con- 


236       Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Freaclier. 

viction,  in  tliose  wlio  claim  you  as  tlieir  pastor;  but  I 
forewarn  you,  in  tlie  recollection  of  many  a  bitter  dis- 
appointment, tbat  tliere  are  staves  tbat  look  strong  and 
trusty,  tliat  will  break  wben  you  lean  upon  tliem,  and 
pierce  your  bands  ! 

In  tbe  course  of  my  ministry  I  have  met  witb  men  tvJio, 
witJwut  intending  it,  have  put  hindrances  in  the  way  oj 
my  ivorh.  Chief  among  tbese  bave  been  over  zealous 
defenders.  I  don^t  know  bow  it  is  witb  otber  men,  but 
to  me  it  is  an  infinite  nuisance  to  be  defended.  Some 
kindbearted  people  bave  told  me  witb  an  air  of  intense 
self  satisfaction  tbat  tbey  bave  "  defended  me  tbrougb 
tbick  and  tbin,''^ — whatever  beigbt  of  insanity  tbat  ex- 
pression may  be  intended  to  signify.  Over  zealous 
defenders  don't  appear  to  see  tbat  tbey  actually  provoke 
opposition.  Men  like  to  torment  tbem ;  reports  are  taken 
to  tbem  by  men  wbo  bave  a  comical  vein  in  tbeir  nature, 
and  are  witb  mock  solemnity  submitted  for  confirmation 
or  denial ;  dull  bours  are  enlivened  by  quizzical  comments 
upon  tbe  ministry,  and  harmless  inquiries  are  put  witb 
well  simulated  anxiety  to  know  tbe  truth.  Instantly  tbe 
over  zealous  defender  takes  fire,  and  soon  puts  himself  by 
extravagant  statements  into  tbe  bands  of  bis  friendly  tor- 
mentors. I  advise  you  to  ask  your  friends  never  to  defend 
you;  beg  tbem  to  let  you  alone;  assure  them  that  when 
you  need  defence  you  need  to  be  put  an  end  to.  I  do  not 
know  whether  your  friends  might  not  occasionally  be  per- 
mitted a  disdainful  retort  upon  your  critics,  for  I  believe 
in  disdain  as  the  best  answer  to  some  evil  questions.  I 
know  a  boy  who  defended  bis  father  in  the  best  possible 
manner ;  said  boy  was  in  the  babit  of  expressing  himself 
somewhat  quaintly  on  things  in  general,  so  much  so  that 


Beware  of  Men,  237 

he  liad  quite  a  local  reputation  as  a  budding  genius  ;  on 
one  occasion^  whilst  visiting  the  boys  in  a  neighbour's 
house^  the  head  of  the  family  (a  very  stiff  and  important 
personage)  took  opportunity  of  putting  the  young  philo- 
sopher to  the  test.  '^  So/'  said  he^  in  a  grave  and  digni- 
fied manner,,  ^'  they  tell  me^  my  boy^  that  your  father 
drinks  ? ''  The  youth  (whose  upper  lip  is  singularly 
expressive  of  scorn)  turned  upon  him  with  the  utmost, 
quietness^  and  said,  "  You  great  daft  thing  !  "  Not  a 
word  more ;  it  was  enough.  In  that  way  I  should  like 
ever  to  be  defended  :  first,  so  to  live  as  to  be  like  the 
boy's  father,  above  suspicion ;  and  then  to  be  so  trusted 
and  beloved  as  to  expose  all  slanderers  to  the  just  charge 
of  being  "  great  daft  things."  I  prefer  abuse  to  defence. 
Undeserved  abuse  always  does  a  man  good ;  defence  is 
almost  sure  to  do  him  unintended  injury.  Count  it  a 
blessed  day  in  your  ministerial  history  when  low  minded 
men  write  against  you  in  the  newspapers,  and  speak 
against  you  in  the  social  circles ;  the  time  for  doing  good 
has  then  come  :  but  when  the  devil  is  quiet,  when  he  5s 
treating  you  with  indifference,  when  he  does  not  think  it 
worth  while  to  set  his  very  least  imp  upon  you,  be  sure 
there  is  something  wanting  in  the  energy  with  which  you 
strike  him.  The  probability  is  that  the  over  zealous  de- 
fender will  also  be  the  over  zealous  reporter;  this  you  will 
find  to  your  cost  when  he  comes  to  you  with  tale  after  tale, 
not  one  of  which  is  worthy  of  a  moment's  attention,  but 
all  of  which  taken  together  may  irritate  and  unsettle  you. 
The  officious  though  well  disposed  reporter  will  say,  "  You 
know,  sir,  one  can't  help  hearing  those  things;"  ''the 
other  day  I  was  compelled  to  hear  so  and  so  : "  ''  of 
course,  having  a  place  of  business  in  the  very  middle  of 


238       Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

the  town,  a  good  many  people  drop  in  and  tell  me 
things  I  should  not  otlierwise  liear ; "  ^^  of  course 
you  know,  sir,  I  don't  tell  you  these  things  to 
trouble  you ;  it  is  only  to  put  you  on  your  guard  that  I 
venture  to  name  them ; ''  and  in  this  self  excusing,  yet 
self  deluding  manner  the  poor  man  constitutes  himself 
into  the  very  sewer  of  the  church,  and  imagines  that  he 
is  doing  service  to  his  minister  I  I  have  known  not  a  few 
good  men  pestered  in  this  way.  Things  they  ought  never 
to  have  heard  have  been  carefully  told  them  by  indiscreet 
sympathisers,  and  in  moments  of  despondency  such  things 
have  been  exaggerated  by  nervous  apprehensions,  and 
so  a  thoughtless  friendship  has  given  them  more  pain  than 
open  enmity.  On  this  matter  I  have  two  simple  pieces 
of  advice  to  offer  you — first  of  all,  never  believe  a  word  you 
hear.  Be  sure  a  tone  has  been  altered  or  missed,  a  cir- 
cumstance has  been  altogether  forgotten  or  mistaken,  so 
that  the  meaning  of  the  original  speaker  has  been  lost, 
and  that  consequently  if  he  were  to  hear  the  tale  to  which 
his  own  name  is  attached  he  would  be  amazed  at  his  own 
cleverness  or  knavery.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  relate 
anything  exactly  as  it  was  first  told.  Every  word  may  be 
carefully  repeated,  yet  the  savour  may  be  lost ;  the  bottle 
may  have  been  steadily  carried,  yet  as  the  glass  stopper 
has  been  exchanged  for  a  common  cork  the  spirit  of  the 
contents  has  exhaled.  To  this  recommendation  of  univer- 
sal disbelief  let  me  add  a  second  piece  of  advice — never 
defend  yourself.  I  know  what  the  ardent  young  minister 
is  apt  to  do.  Immediately  that  he  hears  of  some  unlucky 
man  who  has  been  criticising  his  sermons  he  makes  it  his 
business  to  wait  on  the  unhappy  critic  and  to  pummel  him 
weU  by  a  high  wrought  defence  of  himself  and  his  method 


Beware  of  Men,  239 

of  preacliing,  lie  turns  on  tlie  great  wheel  for  tlie  purpose 
of  killing  a  fly,  and  tlie  probability  is  that  lie  cannot  stop 
the  wheel  when  the  magnificent  slaughter  has  been  accom- 
plished. Or  there  is  another  way  in  which  the  young 
enthusiast  may  attempt  self  vindication,  he  loa^ij  stand  upon 
his  dignity  when  he  meets  offenders.  He  may  speak  to 
them  coldly,  he  may  hold  them  at  arm^s  length ;  he  may 
assume  the  most  chilling  airs  of  haughty  self  reliance;  and 
a  hundred  other  foolish  things  he  may  do.  Now,  my 
dear  sir,  hear  me;  don't  stand  on  your  dignity;  p/ease 
don^t  stand  on  your  dignity;  forget  your  dignity;  leave 
your  dignity  at  home,  and  be  a  Christian  gentleman.  A 
Christian  gentleman  never  stands  on  his  dignity,  and 
therefore  he  is  never  undignified.  Suppose  you  stand  on 
your  dignity,  what  then  ?  Why,  of  course,  Mrs.  Tallow- 
chandler  will  stand  on  hei-  dignity,  so  will  Mrs.  Laundress, 
so  will  Mrs.  Charwoman;  you  will  all  stand  on  your  dignity, 
and  your  fall  into  the  ditch  will  be  all  the  greater  for  your 
elevation.  There  is  yet  a  third  way  in  which  a  fiery 
youth  may  put  in  a  word  for  himself;  he  may  rush  into 
print.  In  a  blaze  of  indignation  he  declares  his  intention 
not  to  be  put  down.  "  No,'^  says  he,  "  I  shall  appeal  to 
a  discriminating  public  !  "  The  excited  youth  forgets 
that  the  public  is  not  discriminating;  the  public  is  an 
overgrown  fussy  baby,  so  busy  weaving  cotton  and  selling 
potatoes  as  not  to  care  one  iota  who  is  right  and  who  is 
wrong  in  an  ecclesiastical  brawl.  Never  print  whilst  you 
are  angry ;  and  whether  you  are  angry  or  not,  never  print 
anything  in  your  own  defence.  Print  poetry,  because 
nobody  will  read  it ;  print  sermons,  for  that  is  the  most 
decent  form  of  burial ;  but  never  print  personal  defences, 
because  every  gossip  in  the  neighbourhood  will  buy  your 


2'40       Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

hot  preparations  and  scald  you  witli  tliem  some  other  day. 
May  you  know  the  blessedness  of  those  who  Lave  neither 
pens  nor  ink,  who  never  condescend  to  write  a  letter,  and 
who  hold  original  composition  in  contempt.  •'Twill  save 
you  from  a  thousand  snares,  to  throw  your  pens  away. 

I  shall  take  my  own  advice,  at  least  for  the  present; 
so  let  my  final  word  be  upon  the  desirableness  of  not 
committing  yourself  to  anybody.  Never  tell  all  you  know. 
Never  mix  yourself  with  the  petty  confidences  of  chques. 
Dine  as  seldom  as  possible  in  company,  especially  in 
company  with  the  members  of  your  own  congregation. 
Select  your  friends  with  the  most  critical  care,  and  when 
you  find  a  really  true  man  give  him  your  heart,  let  him 
feel  the  influence  of  a  strong  deep  love,  and  he  will  prize 
JOU.Y  confidence  when  he  knows  that  it  is  not  indiscrimi- 
nately bestowed.  I  am  afraid  you  will  think  me  some- 
what severe,  yet  I  make  my  appeal  to  time.  I  have 
trusted  many,  I  have  found  a  few  chosen  men  in  whose 
keeping  my  very  life  would  be  perfectly  safe;  yet  looking 
at  the  breadth  of  a  lifetime,  I  feel  constrained  to  repeat 
the  Saviour^s words,  "Beware  ofmen." 


SYL 
DIRECTOEIES; 

You  are  not  to  suppose  an  intention  on  my  part  to  review 
all  the  HelpSj  Guides_,  and  Aids  to  tlie  power  of  public 
speaking  wliicli  liave  appeared  from  tlie  time  of  St. 
Augustine ;  my  modest  wish  is  to  say  a  word  or  two  upon 
books  which  are  of  recent  production^  and  which,  as  will 
be  seen,  deserve  notice  both  as  warnings  and  examples. 
The  other  day  I  laid  out  a  small  sum  in  the  purchase  of 
the  most  magnificent  work  ever  penned  upon  the  subject 
to  which  it  is  devoted, — nothing  less  than  '^  a  complete 
guide  to  the  attainment  of  purity  and  elegance  of  style 
in  speaking  and  writing.''^  The  sum  expended  was  ''  two 
and  eleven/^ — how  far  the  investment  was  such  as  to 
tempt  you  to  follow  my  example  you  shall  presently  see. 
Please  to  remember  that  the  book  in  question  is  not 
merely  a  guide  but  a  complete  guide,  and  not  a  complete 
guide  to  rudimentary  writing,  but  to  the  attainment  of 
purity  and  elegance  of  style.  What  is  said  on  the  title 
page  is  repeated  on  page  33 — '*  our  treatise  being  de- 
signed for  the  advanced  student,^^  etc.  Notwithstanding 
this  high  design,  the  condescending  author  gives  on 
his  16th  page  '^Preliminary  Hints  to  Juvenile  Readers,^ ^ 
the  originality  and  value  of  which  do  not  admit  of  two 
opinions ;  here  they  are — 

"  Be  careful  to  pronounce  each  word  deliberately,  with 

li 


242       Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

a  clear  and  distinct  utterance  of  every  syllable,  and  witli 
due  attention  to  tlie  vowels,  diphthongs,  and  final  conso- 
nants. Read  as  if  conversing  in  polite  society,  not  as  a 
task,  not  thinking  of  your  voice  and  how  you  impress 
your  listeners,  but,  as  far  as  you  can,  forgetting  yourself, 
and  entering  into  the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  the 
author :  and  a  caution  to  youthful  readers  may  here  not 
be  ill  timed,  viz.,  that  they  especially  guard  against  an 
over  serious  and  formal  tone  and  manner.  The  object  of 
reading  is  to  give  pleasure,  while  imparting  information; 
therefore  the  voice,  as  well  as  the  expression  of  the 
countenance,  should  indicate  cheerfulness,  making  it  ap- 
parent that  the  reader  takes  an  interest  in  the  subject, 
and  is  gratified  by  the  exercise.  There  is  a  natural 
charm  in  a  hvely  and  unafi*ected  tone ;  and,  to  conclude, 
we  recommend  the  old  fashioned  couplet  as  a  very  good 
rule  for  beginners,  viz., — 

*  Learn  to  speak  slow,  all  other  graces 
Will  follow  in  their  proper  places.' 

''  A  variety  in  exercises  gives  mastery,  and  for  this  it 
is  advisable  to  practise  alternately  the  diff'erent  styles  of 
composition,  from  the  light  and  humorous,  to  the  more 
grave  and  dignified.^' 

The  comprehensive  advice  to  be  careful  about  vowels 
and  diphthongs,  yet  not  to  think  of  the  voice,  to  forget 
yourself  and  yet  to  let  the  countenance  indicate  cheerful- 
ness, not  to  think  of  the  voice  and  yet  to  aim  at  a  lively 
and  unafi*ected  tone,  is  most  charming,  enabling  the 
author  to  come  in  at  the  front  door  and  go  out  at  the 
back,  and  to  say  contradictory  things  in  such  a  manner 


Directories.  24-3 

as  to  be  bound  to  neitber  of  tbem.  Tbe  youtbful  reader 
is  not  to  tbink  of  bow  be  impresses  bis  listeners,  yet  be  is 
to  sbow  tbat  be  is  gratified  by  tbe  exercise ;  be  is  to  be 
indifferent  to  bis  bearers,  and  yet  to  remember  tbat  bis 
object  is  to  give  tbem  pleasure  and  impart  to  tbem 
information.  Tbey  must  be  very  juvenile  readers  for 
wbom  sucb  lucid  bints  are  designed.  You  will  be  pleased 
to  observe  tbat  tbe  countenance  is  to  indicate  cbeerful- 
ness  as  a  proof  tbat  tbe  reader  takes  an  interest  in  tbe 
subject,  wbetber  tbe  subject  be  "ligbt  and  bumorous^'  or 
"tbe  more  grave  and  dignified":  tbe  great  object  witb 
our  pleasant  autbor  is  to  be  cheerful,  in  wbatever  direction 
tbe  rbetorical  wind  may  blow. 

So  mucb  for  juvenile  readers.  Coming  to  "advanced 
students/'  tbe  autbor  "  doubts  wbetber  tbe  strict  form- 
ality of  metbodical  systems  may  not  often  prove  ratber 
a  bindrance  tban  a  belp  to  minds  of  a  superior  cast."" 
Keeping  bis  eye  upon  "minds  of  a  superior  cast/'  tbe 
autbor  sublimely  says :  "  Had  tbe  early  genius  of 
Sbakspeare  been  tbus  cramped  and  rigidly  tied  down  to 
precise  modes  and  details  of  study,  we  mucb  doubt 
wbetber  bis  imagination  would  bave  expanded  witb  tbe 
noble  freedom,  and  bold  and  grapbic  originality,  wbicb 
constitutes  tbe  great  cbarm  of  bis  dramatic  compositions. 
We  admit  tbat,  so  trained,  be  migbt  bave  been  eminently 
sbrewd  and  clever,  but  be  would  not  bave  been  Sbak- 
speare as  be  bas  come  down  to  us,  and  as  we  deligbt  to 
know  bim.-"  Tbis  is,  of  course,  a  most  satisfactory 
explanation  of  Sbakspeare.  We  now  see  clearly  all 
about  bim.  Avoid  precise  modes  and  details  of  study, 
and  you  will  probably  be  a  Sbakspeare;  keep  clear  of 
"bints    to   juvenile   readers/'    or   you   will   never   write 

R  2 


244       Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

"Hamlet/^  The  judicial  mind  of  tlie  author  admits 
that  had  Shakspeare  read  sucli  hints  and  been  foolish 
enough  to  take  them  seriously  to  hearty  he  would  have 
been  a  tolerably  shrewd  man  on  the  whole,, — nay  more, 
^'  eminently  shrewd  and  clever^^'  which  is  a  poor  encou- 
ragement to  the  public  to  buy  our  author^s  '^complete 
guide. •'^  How  any  man  can  have  brought  himself  to 
imagine  that  Shakspeare  could  have  been  '^cramped 
and  rigidly  tied  down  to  precise  modes  and  details  of 
study/^  is  not  to  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for^  except 
on  the  principle  that  he  himself  was  ''  rigidly  tied  down" 
in  his  youth^  and  has  never  been  able  to  shake  off  his 
bonds. 

Having  thus  explained  the  majesty  of  Shakspeare^ 
the  author  adds  with  wonderful  simplicity : — "  We  have 
therefore  purposely  omitted  much  of  the  introductory 
matter  commonly  found  in  school  treatises^^^  etc.  This 
is  one  of  the  collateral  blessings  which  Shakspeare 
has  conferred  upon  the  world.  Because  Shakspeare 
might  have  been  spoiled  by  modes  and  details^  our  author 
shrinks  from  the  possibility  of  nipping  some  young 
Shakspeare  in  the  bud^  and  therefore  avoids  ^^  precise 
modes  and  details  of  study .■'^  This  was  very  daring  on 
the  part  of  the  author^  yet  he  recovered  himself  by  the 
aid  of  a  great  name.  *'  Nor,"  says  he,  "  are  we  without 
support  in  this  our  view.  It  was  the  advice  of  Dr. 
Johnson/^  etc.;  clearly  showing  how  impossible  it  is  even 
for  the  strongest  minds  to  proceed  far  in  original  think- 
ing without  coming  upon  unexpected  and  illustrious  com- 
panionship. Dr.  Johnson  advised  a  young  man  to  give 
his  days  and  nights  to  Addison,  and  our  author  adds  this 
important  remark — ^^  We  hold  the  counsel  advisable,  for 


Directories.  245 

his  writings  exhibit  a  faultless  style  and  classic  purity, 
while  breathing  a  cheerful  spirit,  enlivened  with  a  rich 
vein  of  humour  and  a  playful  but  harmless  satire,  and  as 
a  moral  essayist  he  has  rarely  been  excelled/'  After 
this,  no  one  will  be  at  liberty  to  question  the  "  advisable- 
ness"  of  Dr.  Johnson^s  advice  :  in  the  first  instance,  Dr. 
Johnson  supports  our  author's  opinion,  and  in  the  next, 
our  author  supports  Dr.  Johnson's  opinion,  and  thus  the 
whole  question  is  settled.  Still,  remembering  that  ^^by 
some  this  celebrated  essayist  is  regarded  as  out  of  date," 
the  author  judiciously  adds : — "  We  deem  it  well  then 
to  begin  with  Addison,  but  by  no  means  to  end  with 
him."  Certainly  not !  Begin  with  an  author  of  ^'  fault- 
less style  and  classic  purity,"  but  "by  no  means  end  with 
him."  Give  your  days  and  nights  to  Addison,  and  the 
remainder  of  your  time  to  somebody  else  ! 

One  brief  division  of  this  "  complete  guide  "  is  entitled 
"  The  Suggestive  Faculty,"  and  in  giving  "  Hints  for  its 
Exercise,"  the  author  says  : — "  in  order  to  be  fluent  in 
speech  we  must  be  fertile  in  thought,  for  words  being  but 
the  signs  of  our  ideas,  to  have  a  copious  command  of  the 
former  we  must  multiply  the  latter.  Whatever  therefore 
sets  our  thoughts  actively  at  work  will  serve  our  turn, 
and  claims  our  first  attention.  For  this,  formal  rules  are 
not  needful,  a  single  suggestion  may  suffice.  We  will 
then  at  once  commence."  Prepare  yourself,  my  friend, 
for  one  of  the  most  pathetic  illustrations  ever  addressed 
to  your  heart,  and  please  to  remember  that  it  forms  part 
of  a  book  intended  for  '^  advanced  students  " — not  for 
tyroes,  but  for  men  of  capacity  and  strength.  The 
author's  object  is  to  teach  his  advanced  students  how  to 
"  multiply  ideas  " ;  and  how  admirably  the  illustration  is 


246       Ad  Clerimi  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier, 

fitted  to  serve  tliis  useful  purpose  you  will  see  without 
the  aid  of  a  commentator.  '^  You  have  received,  we  will 
suppose,  two  invitations,  each  being  to  spend  a  month,  one 
with  friends  in  town,  the  other  in  the  country ;  you  must 
choose  between  them,  and  perhaps  are  puzzled  in  so 
doing.  Ere  you  decide,  you  will  think  and  turn  over  in 
your  mind  the  pleasure  and  advantage  you  may  expect 
from  either.  On  the  one  hand  the  country  tempts  you 
with  its  freshness  and  beauty,  its  rural  scenes,  its  walks 
and  rides,  and  healthful  recreations.  On  the  other  hand 
the  town  attracts  with  its  gaieties,  its  social  pleasures,  and 
diversified  entertainments ;  in  either  case,  not  omitting 
the  companionship  you  may  prefer,  and  the  society  you 
will  enter  into.  Here  is  no  lack  of  matter  for  thinking, 
if  you  would  choose  discreetly ;  and  it  will  be  helpful  to 
note  down  separately  the  j^'i^os  and  cons,  and  then  weigh 
and  consider.  We  have  merely  thrown  out  the  hint  for 
the  youthful  comj^oser.'^ 

"  Here  is  no  lack  of  matter  for  thinking  '^  !  !  You  will 
observe  that  the  town  attracts  you  ivith  its  gaieties ;  you 
will  also  observe  that  you  are  not  only  to  think,  but  to  turn 
over  in  your  mind,  and  the  difficult  part  of  your  work  is  to 
think  and  turn  over  "  the  pleasure  and  advantage  ^'  which 
exist  only  in  expectation,  and  therefore  don't  exist  at  all. 
It  is  very  prettily  said  that  the  country  tempts  you  with 
its  rural  scenes.  Observe  the  intellectual  process  through 
which  you  have  to  pass  before  going  out  for  a  month's 
holiday — ^^  think — turn  over  in  your  mind — note  down  se- 
parately— then  weigh  and  consider  /'  that 's  all  !  Why 
you  could  not  do  more  if  you  had  to  choose  between 
life  and  death  !  I  am  afraid  that  if  anything  could  have 
enfeebled    the    wings   of    Shakspeare    this    process    of 


Directories.  247 

''  tliinking  "  would  have  succeeded  in  doing  so.  If  you 
should  ever  avail  yourself  of  this  absurd  advice,  pray 
don't  tell  the  friend  whose  hospitality  you  accept  that  you 
have  made  your  way  to  his  house  through  the  briers  of 
such  sharp  logic,  and  especially  keep  the  secret  from  his 
wife,  or  she  will  not  ask  you  whether  you  will  take  tea  or 
coffee,  for  fear  you  should  retire  for  an  hour  to  ''  note 
down  separately  the  pros  and  cons."  It  is  however  a 
great  relief  to  find  our  author  saying,  '^We  have  merely 
thrown  out  the  hint  for  the  youthful  composer '';  if  the 
youthful  composer  will  do  the  same  thing  the  hint  will  be 
treated  exactly  as  it  deserves.  No,  no ;  we  must  have 
something  better  than  this,  worse  is  impossible  ;  why,  this 
is  infinitely  better — a  minister,  whose  command  of  words 
was  positively  alarming,  was  asked  by  what  method  he  had 
acquired  such  amazing  fluency,  and  he  frankly  owned  it 
was  the  result  of  practice;  said  he,  ^^when  I  go  out  to 
walk,  I  say  to  my  stick  '  long  stick,  hard  stick,  strong 
stick,  smooth  stick,  thick  stick,  light  stick,  nice  stick,' '' 
whereupon  his  waggish  listener  added  ^'  dry  stick,''  and 
left  him. 

You  are  not  to  be  deterred  from  the  practice  recom- 
mended by  our  author  by  its  difficulty,  because  '^such  a 
process  constitutes  the  element  of  solid  improvement," 
and  besides  this  '^the  task  becomes  easier  with  practice, 
one  thought  begets  another,  till  at  length  we  master  the 
difficulty  and  become  conscious  of  our  power ;  we  then 
begin  to  take  a  pleasure  in  duly  ordering  our  ideas,  and 
in  giving  a  becoming  expression  to  them.'*'  This  word 
of  encouragement  is  needed,  considering  the  painfulness 
of  the  task  appointed  by  the  exacting  author.  Some  of 
us  have  great  difficulty  in  ^^ commanding  our  thoughts"; 


248       Ad  Gleriim :  Advices  to  a  Young  PreacJier. 

judge    therefore    of  my    delight   in    coming   upoxi   this 
luminous  passage  : — 

'^It  is  most  desirable  to  acquire  betimes  a  habit  of 
fixing  the  attention,  and  concentrating  the  thoughts, 
which  are  ever  prone  to  wander,  especially  with  the  un- 
practised ;  a  watchful  guard  is  ther  jfore  requisite,  to 
counteract  this  propensity ;  and  it  is  no  less  needful  to  be 
able  to  control  our  ideas  than  to  have  formed  them  aright. 
In  the  choice  of  words  also,  to  give  a  judicious  expression 
to  our  sentiments,  due  care  and  discretion  are  indispens- 
able." 

That  settles  the  question,  by  putting  you  up  to  the  art 
and  mystery  of  mental  concentration.  Yon  see  now  ex- 
actly how  it  is,  don^t  you  ?  Appoint  a  watchful  guard, 
and  give  due  expression  to  your  sentiments, — that 's  all, 
nothing  easier,  my  dear  sir,  if  you  know  how,  which  is 
not  the  business  of  the  ^'  com-ijlete"  guide  to  tell, 
especially  for  the  trifling  sum  of  two  and  elevenpence. 
Still  our  author  must  have  felt  that  in  putting  the  case  in 
this  clear  manner  he  had  made  a  considerable  contribution 
to  that  form  of  authorship  which,  as  George  Eliot  says, 
"  is  called  suggestion,  and  consists  in  telling  another  man 
that  he  might  do  a  great  deal  with  a  given  subject  by 
bringing  a  sufficient  amount  of  knowledge,  reasoning, 
and  wit  to  bear  upon  it.*' 

You  will  admit,  I  am  sure,  the  importance  of  ''  variety 
in  forms  of  expression  '^;  on  this  subject  our  author  is 
conspicuously  great,  as  you  will  see  by  the  following — 

''  This  is  effected  by  changing  the  position  of  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  a  paragraph,  or  compound  sentence,  with- 
out altering  the  words. 


Directories.  249 


''Example. 


1.  When  a  good  man  dies  lie  leaves  all  his  bad  behind, 

and  carries  all  his  good  with  him.     When  a.  sinner 
dies  he  leaves  all  his  good,  and  carries  all  his  bad. 

2.  When  a  good  man  dies  he  carries  all  his  good,  etc. 

3.  A  good  man  when  he  dies  leaves,  etc. 

4.  A  good  man  when  he  dies  carries,  etc. 

5.  When  he  dies,  a  good  man,  etc. 

6.  A  sinner  when  he  dies — When  a  sinner  dies,  etc. 

N.B. — This  sentence  admits  of  twelve  variations/* 

Now,  sir,  no  more  talk  of  want  of  variety  in  preaching  ! 
By  a  skilful  use  of  this  novel  permutation,  one  sermon 
will  last  you  a  lifetime ;  when  I  reflect  on  this  it  is  im- 
possible to  begrudge  the  two  and  elevenpence  for  so  com- 
plete a  guide.  Query :  if  one  sentence  admits  of  twelve 
variations,  of  how  many  variations  will  two  sermons 
admit  ?  Then  the  text  may  be  varied,  begin  one  inch 
from  the  beginning,  then  begin  in  the  middle,  then  read  it 
backwards,  and  then  try  it  from  the  beginning.  If  the 
order  of  words  may  be  varied,  why  may  not  the  emphasis 
of  the  words  be  varied  too  ?  See  how  rich  a  field  is 
opened  by  this  simple  plan  !  Take  the  text,  ^'  Go  thou 
and  do  likewise '';  and  the  results  are  truly  wonderful — 
thus : — 

Go  thou  and  do  likewise ;  that  is,  don^t  do  it  here,  but  go 

out  and  do  it. 
Go  thou  and  do  likewise ;  don^t  work  by  deputy,  do  your 

own  work. 
Go  thou  and  do  likewise ;  it  is  not  enough  to  go,  you 

must  also  do. 


250       Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

Go  thou  and  do  likewise;  don^t  merely  think  or  approve, 
but  act. 

Go  tliou  and  do  lilwwise:  don't  be  original;  copy  and  re- 
flect, but  don't  originate. 
N.B. — This    emphasis  is  adapted  to  all  subjects  and 

occasions. 

The  native  delicacy  of  the  author's  taste  is  strikingly 
shown  in  his  remarks  upon  ^^  Qualified  or  Softened  Ex- 
pression." Some  of  us  have  an  unfeeling  way  of  calling 
a  spade  a  spade,  and  a  shameful  habit  of  calling  a  liar  a 
liar.  To  all  this  rudeness  there  may  now  be  a  happy  end. 
Speaking  upon  "■  Qualified  or  Softened  Expression/'  the 
author  says :  ^^  This  serves  to  mitigate  the  severity  of 
rude  and  harsh  sounding  words,  by  avoiding  all  such  as 
are  highly  ofiFensive.  Thus,  instead  of  branding  the  in- 
dividual with  the  odious  epithet  of  liar,  we  may  accuse 
him  of  misrepresentation.  Instead  of  the  stigma,  sot, 
sluggard,  or  idler,  we  say,  deficient  in  energy,  the  re- 
verse of  diligent,  prone  to  inaction.  Insufferable  pride 
will  be  exaggerated  self-esteem;  for  madness,  aliena- 
tion of  mind ;  and  instead  of  brutal  folly,  a  lamentable 
want  of  prudence." 

This  rule  would  considerably  change  (not  improve)  the 
method  of  putting  things  in  some  parts  of  the  New 
Testament.  For  example :  ''  If  any  man  say  he  love  God, 
and  hateth  his  brotherhood,  he  is  a  liar,"  would  be — he  is 
guilty  of  misrepresentation :  a  much  gentler  method  of 
dealing  with  the  case.  Even  Solomon,  wisest  of  men, 
might  be  amended ;  when  he  says,  "  Go  to  the  ant,  thou 
sluggard,"  he  should  be  read  as  saying,  ^'  Go  to  the  ant, 
thou  who  art  prone  to  inaction  !  "     When  Jesus  Christ 


Directories.  251 

calls  Herod  a  "  fox,"  He  should  be  understood  as  calling 
him  '^  that  animal  of  the  genus  Canis,  with  a  straight  tail, 
yellowish  hair,  and  erect  ears  " — decidedly  more  polite, 
and  considerate  of  human  feeling. 

It  is  with  much  relief  that  I  turn  to  an  eighteenpenny 
book,  by  Mr.  Holyoake,  called  ''  Eudiments  of  Public 
Speaking  and  Debate/'  Get  this  book  if  you  can ;  I  am 
afraid  it  is  out  of  print.  It  is  full  of  wise  and  practical 
counsel,  and  rich  with  allusion  and  quotation  of  the  best 
kind.  An  extract  from  the  chapter  on  Effectiveness  will 
show  what  I  mean.  "  Young  men,  poetical  from  ardour, 
and  enthusiastic  from  passion  rather  than  principle,  will 
often  rush  from  libraries  crammed  with  lore  with  which 
nobody  else  is  familiar,  and  pour  out  before  an  audience 
what  the  speaker  believes  to  be  both  sublime  and  im- 
pressive, but  which  his  hearers  cannot  understand.  They 
grow  listless  and  restless,  and  he  retires  overwhelmed 
with  a  sense  of  failure.  A.  B.,  a  young  friend  of  consider- 
able promise,  thus  failed  in  my  presence.  I  endeavoured 
thus  to  divert  his  despondency. 

'^Failures,  I  urged,  are  with  heroic  minds  the  step- 
ping stones  to  success. 

^^^Why  have  I  not  succeeded?'  he  asked.  'I  can 
never  hope  to  say  better  things  of  my  own  than  I  said 
to-night  of  others. ■* 

"  The  cause  of  your  non-success  is  obvious.  You  com- 
menced by  addressing  your  auditors  as  men,  and  you  left 
them  as  children.  A  young  preacher  who  had  ascended 
the  pulpit  with  great  confidence,  but  who  broke  down  in 
the  middle  of  his  sermon,  was  met  by  Eowland  Hill  as 
he  was  rushing  from  the  pulpit.  ^  Young  man,'  said 
Rowland,  '  had  you  ascended  the   pulpit  in  the  spirit  in 


252       Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

wliicli  you  descended,  you  would  liave  descended  in  the 
spirit  in  which  you  ascended.''  Something  of  this  kind 
will  explain  your  case.  In  your  exordium  you  should 
address  your  auditors  as  though  they  were  children,  state 
your  arguments  as  though  they  were  learners,  and  in 
your  peroration  only  assume  them  to  be  men.  On  the 
threshold  of  a  new  subject  men  are  as  children ;  during 
its  unfoldment  they  are  learners  ;  only  when  the  subject 
is  mastered  are  they  as  men,  with  manhood's  power  to 
execute  their  convictions.  Had  it  struck  you  that  pro- 
bably no  man  of  your  audience  was  familiar  with  the  habits 
of  society  in  the  days  of  Spenser's  'Faery  Queene,'  or  of 
the  high  and  mystic  imaginings  of  the  solitary  Paracelsus, 
would  not  the  thought  have  caused  you  to  recast  your 
whole  lecture  ?  Take  care  that  you  do  not  render  your- 
self amenable  to  the  sarcasm  of  Swift,  who,  when  Burnet 
said,  speaking  of  the  Scotch  preachers  in  the  time  of  the 
civil  war,  '  The  crowds  were  far  beyond  the  capacity  of 
their  churches  or  the  reach  of  their  voices,'  Swift  added, 
'  And  the  preaching  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  crowd ;  I 
believe  the  church  had  as  much  capacity  as  the  minister.'"' 
An  extract  relating  to  debate  will  show  you  Mr.  Holy- 
oake's  spirit  and  somewhat  of  his  method :  ^'  The  object 
of  discussion  is  not  the  vexatious  chase  of  an  opponent, 
but  the  contrastive  and  current  statement  of  opinion. 
Therefore  endeavour  to  select  leading  opinions,  to  state 
them  strongly  and  clearly,  and  when  your  opponent 
replies  be  content  to  leave  his  arguments  side  by  side 
with  your  own,  for  the  judgment  of  the  auditors.  In  no 
case  disparage  an  opponent,  misstate  his  views,  or  torture 
his  words,  and  thus,  for  the  sake  of  a  verbal  triumph, 
produce  lasting  ill  feelings.     Your  sole  business  is  with 


I 


Directories.  253 

ivhat  he  says^  not  hoiu  he  says  it,  nor  why  he  says  it. 
Your  aim  should  be  tliat  tlie  audience  should  lose  sight  of 
the  speakers,  and  be  possessed  with  the  subject,  and  that 
those  who  come  the  partisans  of  persons  shall  depart  the 
partisans  of  principles..  The  victory  in  a  debate  lies  not 
in  lowering  an  opponent,  but  in  raising  the  subject  in 
public  estimation.  Controversial  wisdom  lies  not  in 
destroying  an  opponent,  but  in  destroying  his  error ;  not 
in  making  him  ridiculous  so  much  as  in  making  the 
audience  wise.''''  The  wisdom  of  these  counsels  may  be 
turned  to  advantage  even  in  the  pulpit,  for  though  you  do 
not  there  enter  into  debate  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
term,  yet  you  have  to  reply  to  objections,  to  anticipate 
difficulties,  and  to  commend  your  cause  to  the  judgment 
of  all  who  hear  you.  It  is  specially  needful  in  a  minister 
who  has  the  entire  conduct  of  a  service,  that  he  should 
be  noble  in  his  treatment  of  all  supposed  objectors  ;  their 
arguments  should  be  stated  with  all  possible  clearness 
and  force,  and  courtesy  should  never  be  sacrificed  to 
victory. 

Have  you  seen  Paxton  Hood's  book,  with  the  singular 
title  '^  Lamps,  Pitchers,  and  Trumpets  ''  ?  Get  it  by  all 
means.  The  mere  arrangement  of  the  subjects  might  be 
considerably  improved ;  but  the  matter,  the  spirit,  the 
enthusiasm,  and  the  poetry  leave  nothing  to  be  desired. 
The  book  has  called  me  out  of  many  a  gloomy  fit,  and 
helped  me  to  begin  again  after  I  thought  the  end  of  my 
work  had  come.  There  is  not  a  tame  sentence  in  all  the 
book ;  if  there  is,  I  have  not  seen  it.  Wisdom,  anecdote, 
individuality,  illustration,  parable  —  plenty;  insipidity, 
monotony,  cold  exhortation — none.     Mr.  Hood  gives  his 


254        Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

reader  to  feel  liow  sublime  a  thing  it  is  to  be  a  preaclier. 
We  are  not  allowed  to  drop  tbe  preaclier  into  a  secondary 
rank ;  lie  is  called  of  Grod,  lie  is  inspired  by  the  Holy 
Ghost^  he  is  the  interpreter  and  revealer  of  the  Redeem- 
ing Heart.  Read  this  book  if  ever  you  be  tempted  to 
give  up  the  exercise  of  your  ministry. 

Yinet,  Baxter^  Bridges,  Greswell,  Porter,  Cotton 
Mather,  and  others  will  have  a  good  deal  to  say  that  is 
^'  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  and 
for  instruction^'  in  homiletics.  Remember  that  no 
preacher  was  ever  made  by  rules.  You  may  have  a  bag 
full  of  excellent  tools,  but  if  your  fingers  be  unskilled 
your  instruments  are  of  little  use.  Does  the  spade  make 
the  gardener?  Does  the  easel  make  the  painter?  A 
man  may  read  guide  boards  and  finger  posts  all  the  days 
of  his  life,  and  yet  never  take  a  walk ;  or  he  may  be  pro- 
found in  Bradshaw,  and  yet  never  enter  a  train.  It  is 
possible  too  to  be  a  critic  without  being  an  artist,  and  to 
be  able  to  find  fault  without  being  able  to  do  better. 
Many  of  your  hearers  will  complain  of  your  sermons,  who 
could  not  write  a  sermon  if  they  were  to  be  rewarded 
with  heaven  for  doing  so.  Don^t  upbraid  them  for  their 
inability.  Faultfinding  is  a  distinct  and  special  talent. 
What  would  you  have  thought,  if,  when  you  told  your 
shoemaker  that  your  shoes  didn't  fit,  he  had  challenged 
you  to  make  a  better  pair  ?  Remember  this,  and  be 
humble ! 


XVII. 
THE    GUARANTEES    OF    A    SUCCESSFUL    MINISTEY. 

To-DAT  I  feel  as  if  I  would  mucli  rather  specik  to  you 
than  address  you  in  writing,  as  my  heart  is  full  of  a  sub- 
ject which  requires  to  be  explained  in  the  tenderest  and 
most  urgent  manner,  and  in  secrecy,  as  between  friend 
and  friend  who  are  both  conscious  of  the  presence  and 
looking  forward  to  the  judgment  of  God.  I  do  you  no 
injustice  assuredly  in  presuming  that  you  are  most  anxious 
that  your  ministry  should  be  successful.  Success,  when 
applied  to  Christian  work,  is  a  term  which  requires  to  bo 
carefully  explained.  Already  I  have  given  you  my  views 
pretty  fully  upon  this  point ;  but  as  the  subject  is  one  of 
extraordinary  importance,  you  will  excuse  me  repeating 
that  success  in  ministerial  service  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  success  in  any  other  engagement  of  life.  Naturally 
you  think  of  success  in  connection  with  crowded  chapels, 
ample  pecuniary  resources,  and  a  sounding  reputation : 
far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  these  things  are  not  to  be 
desired  in  a  proper  measure ;  at  the  same  time  I  hold  dis- 
tinctly that  it  is  perfectly  possible  to  fall  short  of  them, 
and  yet  to  be  realising  a  very  high  degree  of  success  in 
the  Christian  ministry.  I  think  it  exceedingly  unreason- 
able on  the  part  of  any  person  to  ridicule  large  congrega- 
tions, or  to  attempt  to  undervalue  outward  and  visible 
signs  of  a  powerful  ministry.  It  is  certain  that  if  people  do 


256      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  P readier. 

not  come  to  hear  you^  you  cannot  do  them  any  good ;  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  probable  that  if  they  do  come  to  hear  you 
the  word  which  you  preach  may  touch  their  hearts ;  on 
this  ground  I  hold  it  to  be  unreasonable  to  say  one  word 
against  able  ministers  of  the  gospel  whose  ministry  secures 
an  overflowing  attendance  of  hearers.  Success,  in  fact, 
is  a  term  which  has  different  meanings  according  to  the 
different  circumstances  under  which  it  is  employed.  One 
man  is  a  successful  preacher, — his  style  of  thought  and 
his  manner  of  expression  are  such  as  to  constitute  him  a 
master  of  great  assemblies.  Another  man  has  a  style  of 
thinking  and  a  manner  of  expression  which  give  him  a 
quieter,  but  not  less  useful  influence.  One  man  is  quali- 
fied to  direct  a  crowd ;  another  is  capable  of  exerting  a 
most  beneficent  influence  on  a  few  select  minds ;  in  both 
cases  there  may  be  the  highest  ministerial  success,  though 
the  outward  signs  differ  so  much.  I  hold  that  no  ministry 
is  successful  that  does  not  work  in  men  a  profound  convic- 
tion of  the  sinfulness  of  sin,  and  an  earnest  desire  to  know 
Jesus  Christ  and  His  blessed  salvation.  Assuming  that 
v/e  are  equally  earnest  in  endeavouring  to  reach  the  highest 
point  of  success  in  our  holy  vocation,  allow  me  to  put 
before  you  a  point  or  two  which  will  show  you  my  own 
view  of  the  case,  and  may  lead  your  own  mind  into  still 
further  pursuit  of  the  conditions  which  are  essential  to 
the  highest  service  for  Christ. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  to  me  that  our  first  business  is  to 
keep  diligently  our  own  heart.  For  a  moment  let  us  ex- 
clude the  idea  that  we  are  called  to  any  special  office  in 
Christ's  kingdom ;  forgetting  that  we  are  ministers  let  us 
think  of  ourselves  as  individual  Christians.  As  sinners 
recovered  by  the  grace  of  Grod,  we  are  never  to  lose  sight 


TUe  Guarantees  of  a  Successful  Minishy.        257 

of  tlie  fact  that  our  salvation  is  derived  entirely  from  tlie 
cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  at  all  from  the  exercise  of 
our  ministerial  gifts.  We  are  not  first  ministers,  and  then 
Christians  ;  we  are  first  Christians,  and  then,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  we  are  called  to  minister  in  Jesus  Christ^s  name. 
What  then  is  our  spiritual  condition  before  God  ?  Is  our 
heart  really  alive  to  the  grandeur  of  the  redemption  of 
which  we  profess  to  have  been  made  partakers  ?  Do  we 
find  rest  in  the  blessed  fact  that  we  ourselves  have  cast 
our  souls  entirely  upon  the  Saviour  and  given  up  our  des- 
tiny to  His  keeping  ?  There  is,  as  you  will  come  to  know, 
a  dread  possibility  of  our  sinking  the  Christian  in  the 
minister,  and  of  our  seeing  even  God's  own  book  rather 
for  ministerial  than  for  strictly  personal  and  spiritual  uses. 
Holding,  as  I  do  most  tenaciously,  that  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel  is  not  a  profession,  but  a  vocation,  I  am  yet 
well  aware  how  powerful  is  the  temptation  to  regard  all 
things  appertaining  to  our  ministry  in  a  professional  light, 
to  turn  Christian  meditation  into  a  kind  of  professional 
study,  and  to  discharge  our  obligations  as  hirelings  rather 
than  sons  of  God.  Retirement,  self-examination,  devout 
study  of  the  holy  Scriptures,  are  entirely  indispensable  to 
any  man  who  would  grow  in  grace  and  qualify  himself  for 
public  usefulness  in  the  church.  Are  we  much  alone  with 
God  ?  Do  we  turn  away  from  the  world  with  all  its  dis- 
tractions and  allurements,  and  enjoy  the  secrecy  in  which 
God  is  our  only  companion  ?  Rely  upon  it,  we  shall  be 
mighty  only  in  proportion  as  we  are  devout ;  and  only  as 
we  walk  with  God,  and  enjoy  deep  and  constant  fellowship 
with  Him  through  His  Son,  shall  we  be  able  to  speak  in  a 
manner  which  will  commend  our  ministry  to  every  man's 
conscience.     I  know  the  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  direc- 


258      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a   Young  Preacher. 

tion  of  profound  spiritual  culture  in  the  individual  heart : 
•there  is  so  much  excitement,  there  is  so  much  to  be  read 
and  to  be  heard,  there  are  so  many  conflicting  opinions  to 
consider  and  balance,  so  many  inroads  are  made  upon 
privacy  by  the  demands  of  custom,  that  it  is  next  to 
impossible,  apart  from  the  severest  economy  of  time, 
to  secure  opportunity  for  deep  and  loving  intercourse 
with  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  don^t 
know  why  I  should  hesitate  to  say  that  there  is  great 
danger,  in  the  multiplicity  of  claims  which  are  constantly 
made  upon  our  attention,  of  overlooking  the  distinctive 
claims  of  Grod^s  own  book.  I  do  not  know  how  far  your 
observation  and  my  own  may  coincide,  but  to  me  it  is 
a  very  painful  and  humiliating .  fact  that  few  books  seem 
to  be  less  known,  even  by  ministers  themselves,  than 
the  book  of  inspiration.  I  have  known  men  of  very 
limited  culture  whose  ministry  has  yet  been  signally 
owned,  through  a  devotion  to  the  Scriptures,  which  has 
enabled  them  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  people  with 
an  appropriateness  and  sufficiency  even  which  no  man  of 
general  reading  could  ever  have  secured.  Truly  in  us 
who  are  called  to  preach  Jesus  Christ  the  word  of  God 
ought  to  dwell  richly  and  abound.  We  ought  not  to 
stumble  in  our  quotation  of  the  Divine  word ;  that  word 
ought  to  be  hidden  in  our  heart,  and  ought  to  be  so  pre- 
cious to  us  as  to  be  within  instant  call  of  our  memory 
whenever  occasion  arises  for  its  application  to  our  own 
spiritual  condition  or  the  interests  of  those  to  whom 
we  minister.  Do  not  imagine  that  I  am  in  any  degree 
enforcing  my  own  example  upon  you,  when  I  venture  to 
say  again  and  again  that  unless  you  be  shut  up  as  it 
were  with  the  Father,  the   Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  in 


The  Guarantees  of  a  Successful  Ministry.        259 

secret  retirement,  no  unction  will  rest  upon  your  ministry, 
however  eloquent  your  language,  or  splendid  your  illus- 
trations, or  veliement  your  public  appeals.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  disguise  tbe  spirit  wbicli  comes  of  profound  con- 
templation of  religious  subjects ;  it  is  impossible  to 
conceal  the  fact  which  is  produced  by  prolonged  and 
loving  intercourse  with  the  Saviour.  If  the  countenance 
itself  do  not  shine  with  unearthly  lustre,  there  will  be  in 
the  whole  manner  an  influence  which  will  proclaim  itself 
to  have  been  originated  by  the  highest  intercourse.  Let 
us,  then,  seek  to  deepen  our  Christian  conviction  and 
Christian  feeling.  Let  us  live  very  near  the  cross ;  let 
Jesus  -Christ  be  the  one  all- commanding  Object  of  our 
attention  and  our  love.  If  such  be  the  case,  we  shall 
know  what  it  is  to  long  with  unspeakable  desire  for  the 
presence  and  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Some  of  us, 
indeed,  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  this  is  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  all  Christian  use- 
fulness is  now  to  be  conducted  and  directed  by  Him  alone. 
The  Holy  Ghost  is  to  be  given  in  answer  to  fervent  and 
unceasing  prayer ;  let  us  wait  diligently  at  the  throne, 
until  we  receive  this  most  blessed  and  inspiring  Gift.     • 

Our  work  in  the  ministry  will  be  a  failure  unless  we 
seek  to  discharge  our  obligations  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ.  We  must  work  as  He  worked,  and  for  the  pur- 
poses which  formed  the  great  object  of  His  ministry.  The 
spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  was  a  spirit  of  true  sincerity, 
courage,  unselfishness ;  Jesus  Christ  was  always  seeking 
the  redemption  of  men.  We  shall  grow  cold  in  our  work, 
if  the  fires  of  our  heart  be  not  renewed  by  the  love  of  the 
Saviour.  We  must  seek  to  obtain  His  view  of  human 
life,  alike  in  the  individual  and  in  society.     Jesus  Christ 

s  2 


2G0      Ad  Clerum:   Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier. 

did  not  work  on  great  occasions  only,  He  sought  to  make 
every  occasion  great.  He  devoted  Himself  as  entirely  to 
the  service  of  one  sinner,  as  to  the  teaching  of  the  greatest 
multitude  that  throng'ed  upon  His  ministry.  The  spirit 
of  Jesus  Christ  was  the  spirit  of  hope ;  He  did  not  dis- 
courage the  worst  persons  who  sought  His  counsel  and 
His  sympathy.  His  delight  was  to  seek  and  to  save  the 
lost.  Are  we  not  in  danger  of  attending  almost  ex- 
clusively to  the  sections  of  society  which  are  distinctly 
denominated  respectable  ?  We  think  it  a  great  thing  to 
see  a  respectable  congregation ;  we  s]3eak  applaudingly  of 
the  men  who  gather  around  them  the  rich  and  the  learned ; 
I  fear  that  in  doing  so  we  may  miss  the  influence  of  the 
spirit  which  inspired  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  Christ  sought 
the  lost,  the  lowest,  the  vilest,  the  outcast  and  the 
despised.  You  will  no  doubt  remind  me  that  in  con- 
nection with  most  ecclesiastical  organisations  there  are 
agencies  for  the  recovery  of  the  lowest  class  of  the  popu- 
lation. I  am  quite  aware  of  this,  yet  I  feel  a  danger  even 
here,  because  some  of  us  may  be  seeking  to  do  by  deputy 
what  we  ought  to  be  doing  in  our  own  proper  person. 
Believe  me,  it  does  not  appear  to  me  to  be  sufficient  to 
delegate  to  others  the  work  of  informing  ourselves  of  the 
condition  of  the  most  ruined  peojole;  there  is  not  a 
minister  amongst  us,  how  remarkable  soever  his  gifts  or 
exalted  his  position,  who  would  not  be  stimulated  and 
encouraged  in  his  work  by  spending  a  little  time  now  and 
again  in  visiting  the  darkest  haunts  of  our  incomplete 
civilisation.  I  cannot  but  think  that  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
would  not  always  be  found  on  the  busy  thoroughfares  of 
our  cities  or  in  their  attractive  suburbs;  I  cannot  but  feel 
that  oftentimes  He  would  be  found  in  the  lowest  places. 


The  Guarantees  of  a  Successful  Mimstry.        261 

speaking  to  men^  women^  and  children  out  of  wliom  all 
that  is  human  has  almost  perished.  Ought  not  the  spirit 
of  our  Saviour  to  constrain  us  to  make  some  personal 
sacrifice  in  this  direction  ?  Of  course,  there  must  be 
adaptation  on  our  part  to  meet  such  as  those  now  specially 
referred  to ;  at  the  same  time  it  is  quite  possible  that 
when  we  put  ourselves  into  the  right  circumstances 
adaptation  on  our  part  may  be  unexpectedly  developed. 
The  highest  talent  is  often  required  to  meet  extremitfes. 
It  appears  to  me  to  be  quite  a  mistake  to  imagine  that 
inferior  talent  is  good  enough  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  outcast  masses  ;  on  the  contrary,  my  conviction  is 
that  the  highest  gifts  may  be  most  profitably  employed 
in  meeting  the  difficulties,  the  objections,  the  hardships, 
and  the  perplexities  of  men  whose  case  has  too  often  been 
regarded  as  utterly  hopeless.  Now  nothing  can  enable 
us  to  undertake  with  spirit  and  determination  work  of  this 
kind,  but  deep  sympathy  with  Jesus  Christ.  We  cannot 
engage  in  such  service  with  any  personal  satisfaction  ;  our 
taste  will  be  disgusted,  our  energies  will  be  impaired,  our 
whole  nature  will  recoil,  unless  we  go  into  this  work  ani- 
mated by  the  self-sacrificing  and  all-loving  spirit  of  the 
Redeemer.  Not  only  so,  our  own  morality  will  be  cor- 
rupted if  we  take  with  us  anything  less  than  the  protec- 
tion of  the  holiness  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  ourselves  are 
but  men  ;  if  we  touch  pitch,  we  shall  be  defiled;  but  if  we 
seek  Christ's  companionship,  and  defend  ourselves  by 
Christ's  righteousness,  we  shall  be  enabled  to  pass  through 
the  most  revolting  scenes  without  loss  of  virtue,  and  not 
only  so,  but  with  a  positive  gain  of  moral  strength  in  our 
hearts.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  undertake  work  of  this  kind 
as  a  man  of  letters,  or  as  a  mere  philanthropist,  as  a 


262      Ad  Glerum  :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

political  or  a  social  reformer ;  I  ask  you  to  undertake  it 
because  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christy  wliicli  is  tlie  symbol 
of  all  that  is  Divine  and  blessed  in  sacrifice. 

The  great  object  of  our  ministry  is  the  salvation  of 
souls.  The  term  salvation^  as  I  here  employ  it^  is  the 
most  inclusive  term  which  occurs  to  me  to  describe  the 
whole  service  of  our  holy  vocation.  It  includes  not  only 
the  persuasion  of  men  to  go  as  penitents  and  believers  to 
the  footstool  of  mercy  and  the  cross  of  Christ,  but  the 
teaching,  the  enlightenment  and  strengthening  of  all 
Christian  principle  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  have 
avowedly  given  themselves  to  the  Lord.  It  will  be  of 
poor  value  to  us,  on  the  great  day  of  final  judgment,  that 
we  have  been  applauded  for  preaching  great  sermons,  if 
we  have  not  brought  sinners  to  a  knowledge  of  the  way 
of  salvation.  I  know  of  no  bitterer  irony,  or  more  hu- 
miliating satire,  than  to  be  told  that  we  have  delivered 
splendid  discourses,  and  yet  to  know  that  not  one  soul 
has  ever  been  led  to  Jesus  Christ  by  a  ministry  so  flatter- 
ingly described.  I  do  not  despise  the  uses  of  criticism, 
nor  do  I  say  one  word  against  the  charms  of  speech ;  but 
I  do  increasingly  feel,  as  my  experience  of  men  extends, 
that  there  is  nothing  worth  living  for  compared  with  the 
grand  object  of  winning  souls,  working  in  them,  by  the 
aid  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  those  Christian  convictions  which 
save  men  from  death.  To  be  told  by  any  poor  creature 
that  you  have  been  the  means  of  turning  his  attention 
from  things  that  are  earthly  to  things  that  are  heavenly, 
is  to  receive  the  highest  reward  which  is  possible  to 
Christian  labour  in  the  present  scene  of  life.  It  is  a 
hint  of  what  will  be  said  to  you  on  another  day  and  in 
higher  circumstances.     Let  us  seek  for  this  applause, — 


The  Guarantees  of  a  Successful  Ministry.       263 

tlie  applause  wMcli  testifies  to  tlie  rousing  and  converting 
power  of  an  inspired  ministry.  I  know  you  will  be 
tempted  to  engage  in  controversies ;  you  may  also 
be  tempted  to  sbow  oflf  in  some  degree  your  many  ac- 
quirements and  your  distinguished  abilities ;  but  let 
me  entreat  you^  as  I  would  in  tbe  fear  of  God  entreat 
myself,  to  pray,  study,  and  preacb  more  distinctly  for  tlie 
conversion  of  men.  ^'  He  that  winnetb  souls  is  wise.-*^ 
If  we  convert  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way,  we 
shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and  hide  a  multitude  of  sins. 
"  They  that  turn  many  to  righteousness  shall  shine  as 
stars  for  ever  and  ever.'''  I  see  not  why  we  should  not 
enter  into  a  vow,  to  give  our  souls  no  rest  until  we  have 
used  every  endeavour  to  bring  men  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  We  cannot  indeed  command 
success ;  we  cannot  say  that  this  and  that  result  shall 
assuredly  accrue  from  our  ministry ;  but  if  we  work  as  if 
we  were  determined  to  command  success,  the  grace  of 
God  is  such  that  we  shall  surely  not  go  without  the  high- 
est reward.  For  your  encouragement,  as  well  as  for  my 
own,  I  would  remind  you  that  no  minister  ever  knows  the 
extent  of  his  usefulness.  We  see  again  and  again  in- 
stances which  save  us  from  despondency;  but  we  cannot 
tell  what  may  be  the  indirect  influence  of  our  Christian 
service.  Strangers  hear  us;  we  never  know  their  names 
or  their  circumstances ;  yet  some  word  of  ours  may  have 
been  to  them  as  unexpected  and  precious  light,  and  they 
may  go  on  their  way  rejoicing;  words  of  which  we 
thought  but  little  at  the  time  may  have  sunk  into  the 
hearts  of  some  who  have  been  burdened  with  secret  grief; 
a  cheerful  tone  may  have  animated  others  who  had  not 
courage  enough  to  lay  before  us  the  circumstances  which 


264      Ad  Clerum :   Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

gave  them  pain.  I  think  we  do  right  to  remind  ourselves 
of  these  possibilities,  lest  we  be  cast  down  for  want  of 
evidence  of  a  more  distinct  and  public  nature. 

When  you  enter  upon  your  sphere  of  service,,  let  me 
advise  you  to  confine  as  far  as  possible  the  energies  of 
your  first  years  to  that  sphere.  You  are  to  be  a  pastor, 
a  shepherd,  a  man  who  loves  men,  and  desires  their  sal- 
vation and  Christian  instruction  and  refinement.  It  must 
be  a  poor  sphere  which  is  not  large  enough  to  exhaust 
all  the  energies  of  a  young  minister.  LeL  me  implore 
you  to  work  for  your  own  church  as  if  it  were  all  the 
world  to  you.  I  know  there  is  a  supposed  magnanimity 
which  looks  beyond  details,  localities,  and  individual 
claims,  and  luxuriates  in  large  ideas  and  boundless  enter- 
prises. Without  saying  one  word  against  this,  I  venture 
to  appeal  to  you  on  every  ground  that  you  considel*  sacred, 
to  keep  diligently  the  vineyard  to  which  you  have  been 
appointed  in  the  providence  of  Grod.  I  am  afraid  that  some 
of  us  will  have  occasion  to  say  at  last,  ^^  other  vineyards 
have  I  kept,  but  mine  own  vineyard  have  I  not  kept." 
A¥hen  in  the  fear  of  God  you  can  truthfully  say  you  have 
exhausted  the  sphere  to  which  you  were  appointed,  when 
you  have  taxed  every  power,  when  you  have  carried  light 
into  every  home  that  is  accessible,  when  you  have  taught 
every  child  who  is  willing  to  be  instructed,  when  you 
have  carried  the  inspiration  of  Christian  conviction  and 
stimulus  into  every  household  belonging  to  your  church, 
then  it  will  be  time  enough  for  you  to  consider  whether 
you  cannot  do  something  beyond  the  limits  of  your  par- 
ticular appointment.  You  will  consider  that  I  am  warn- 
ing you  against  public  work,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
vthat  my  advice  is  intended  to  operate  to  a  large  extent  in 


F 


The  Guarantees  of  a  Successful  Ministnj.        2G5 


tliafc  direction.  You  will  tell  me  that  you  are  a  patriot 
as  well  as  a  Christian ;  that  you  are  a  citizen  as  well  as  a 
minister,  and  therefore  you  have  rights  of  this  kind  or  of 
that  kind,  which  are  not  distinctly  ministerial.  I  know, 
my  dear  sir,  all  that  can  be  said  upon  this  point.  I  am 
not  speaking  to  you  as  to  a  man  who  has  had  twenty 
years'  experience  in  the  ministry,  but  to  a  youth  who  is 
just  putting  on  the  ministerial  harness;  and  I  say  again 
and  again,  with  most  urgent  importunity,  let  me  intreat 
you  to  devote  the  first  of  your  years  and  the  best  of  your 
powers  to  the  interests  of  your  own  church  and  congre- 
gation. After  you  have  been  seven  years  with  your 
people,  and  become  accustomed  to  the  work  which  is 
expected  at  your  hands,  I  do  not  say  that  you  will  not 
feel  yourself  at  liberty  to  help  in  services  which  lie  some- 
what remote  from  your  ministerial  and  pastoral  engage- 
ments. You  may  be  able  to  serve  year  day  and  genera- 
tion by  authorship  ;  you  may  have  a  useful  word  to  say  on 
the  passing  topics  of  the  time  :  you  may  be  able  to  teach 
on  the  platform,  and  stimulate  useful  courses  of  thinking  ; 
3^ou  may  increase  your  influence  by  several  kinds  of  col- 
lateral engagements  :  but  let  the  strength  of  your  life, 
the  richest  power  of  your  nature,  be  still  devoted  to  the 
exposition  and  enforcement  of  Divine  truth.  You  are  a 
minister,  not  an  author ;  you  are  a  minister,  not  a  lec- 
turer ;  you  are  a  minister,  as  was  Paul ;  be  as  devoted  as 
he  was  to  the  cross  and  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 
How  noble  and  glowing  was  the  enthusiasm  which  said, 
"  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ '' ;  how  resolute  was  the  will  which 
declared,  "  I  determine  to  know  nothing  among  men  but 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified.''^     Believe  me,  there  is 


2G6      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

scope  enougli  in  tlie  Clirlstiaii  ministry  to  exliaust  tlie 
fullest  resources  of  any  man;  no  man  wlio  gives  himself 
entirely  to  tlie  work  of  tlie  ministry  lias  occasion  to  com- 
plain of  having  too  little  to  do.  Let  us  then,  giving  <^^^ 
days  to  study  and  our  nights  to  prayer,  endeavour  to 
show  ourselves  ''  able  ministers  of  the  New  Testament." 

You  will  observe  that  in  this  letter  I  have  changed  my 
usual  style,  and  sought  to  express  myself  with  the  utmost 
simplicity  and  earnestness.  I  feel  the  need  of  doing  so 
more  and  more.  The  work  of  the  ministry  becomes  to 
me  daily  more  exacting  in  its  demands.  I  know  not  that 
I  ever  had  so  high  an  idea  of  what  a  Christian  preacher  • 
should  be,  and  of  what  Christian  preaching  may  be,  as 
I  have  to-day.  The  pulpit  will  go  down  if  the  preacher 
goes  down ;  the  preacher  will  go  down  if  the  Christian 
goes  down ;  but  if  there  be  due  service,  at  the  sacred  altar, 
if  there  be  profound  and  earnest  meditation  upon  the 
Divine  oracles,  if  there  be  earnest  searching  of  heart  and 
continual  desire  to  live  as  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ,  if  there  be  anxious  study  and  preparation  for  public 
appeals  and  for  pastoral  services,  the  Christian  pulpit 
will  retain  its  hold  upon  the  sanctified  judgment  and 
affections  of  all  men^. 


y 


XVIII. 

FiaURBS,  PAEABLES,  Al^D  ANECDOTES. 

It  is  easy  to  tell  a  preaclier  to  adopt  a  figarative  style  of 
preacliing  ;  but  wliat  if  he  have  no  figm^es  ?  This  diffi- 
culty is  not  provided  for  by  the  rhetoricians  who  lay  down 
rules^  and  illustrate  them  by  borrowed  examples.  Most 
unquestionably  the  use  of  figures  is  to  be  highly  com- 
mendedj  and  it  is  because  of  a  strong  belief  that  a  good 
deal  can  be  done  to  improve  what  I  may  (for  want  of  a 
better  name)  call  the  metaphorical  faculty,  that  I  urge- 
you  to  insist  upon  your  mind  giving  you  something  in 
the  way  of  illustration.  Look  for  figures;  work  for 
them;  take  them  in  their  rudest  outline,  and  improve 
them.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  you  that  figures 
are  not  to  be  expected  to  meet  all  the  points  of  a  subject; 
let  it  suffice  to  have  one  main  line  of  application,  and  to 
shed  light  on  one  particular  point.  I  may  confess  to  you 
in  this  confidential  correspondence,  that  I  cannot  do  much 
in  the  way  of  metaphor;  yet  this  confession,  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  I  use  all  diligence  to  turn  my  fraction 
of  talent  to  account,  does  not  deter  me  from  urging  you 
to  glean  even  where  you  cannot  reap.  To  provoke  your 
criticism,  to  encourage  the  feeblest  of  your  efi"orts,  and 
to  awaken  your  emulation,  I  venture  to  send  you  a  sample 
of  figures  and  illustrations  which  my  poor  fancy  has 
yielded  with  infinite  reluctance. 


2oS       Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

What  do  you  do  wlien,  in  reading  tlie  massive  folios 
of  ancient  Englisli  authors,  you  meet  passages  written  in 
an  unknown  tongue  ?  Paragraph  after  paragraph  you 
read  with  all  possible  fluency,  instantly  apprehending  the 
autlior^s  purpose ;  but  suddenly  the  writer  throws  before 
you  a  handful  of  Latin  or  a  handful  of  Greek  :  what 
then  ?  If  you  are  absorbed  by  the  interest  of  the  book, 
you  eagerly  look  out  for  the  next  paragraph  in  English, 
and  continue  your  pursuit  of  the  leading  thought.  Do 
likewise  with  God^s  wondrous  providence-book.  Much 
of  it  is  written  in  your  own  tongue — in  large  lettered 
English,  so  to  speak  :  read  that ;  master  its  deep  signi- 
ficance, and  leave  the  passages  of  unknown  language 
until  you  are  farther  advanced  in  the  rugged  literature  of 
life,  until  you  are  older  and  better  scholars  in  God's 
probationary  school.  The  day  of  interpretation  will  as- 
suredly come. 

You  have  seen  an  old  man  tottering  with  the  gathered 
infirmities  of  a  weary  lifetime,  and  wandering  in  darkness 
on  which  no  summer  sun  could  shed  the  light  of  morn- 
ing :  blind !  blind  from  his  birth !  never  saw  God's 
outer  robe  of  many  colours ;  never  saw  God's  shadowed 
outline — ^his  own  mother's  face  !  You  have  seen  such  a 
man,  led  along  the  thronged  highway  by  a  little  child,  to 
whose  young  bright  eyes  he  committed  himself  in  hope 
and  faith.  I  am  that  poor  blind  wanderer  through  the 
way  of  God's  mysteries,  and  that  little  guide  represents 
the  benevolence,  the  mercy,  the  tenderness,  with  which 
God  leads  me  from  horizon  to  horizon,  until  I  stand  amid 
the  encircling  glories  of  the  perfect  revelation.  The 
commonest  mercy  of  the  daytime  flames  up  into  a  fire- 


Figures^  Parables,  and  Anecdotes.  269 

guide,  tliat  lights  men  througli  the  gloom  and  trouble  of 
the  night. 

I  am  afraid  that  many  of  us  are  defective  in  moral  sym- 
metry. Some  men  are  great  Christians  npon  one  point_, 
and  some  are  great  Christians  upon  another.  One  man 
is  a  great  Christian  in  the  matter  of  Sabbath-school 
teaching,  and  another  a  stupendous  Christian  in  the 
matter  of  total  abstinence  from  all  strong  drink.  We 
may  be  too  much  in  the  habit  of  singling  out  special 
virtues,  to  feed  them  up  to  a  high  pitch,  in  order  to  carry 
off  the  prize  at  the  ecclesiastical  show.  This  would  give 
but  a  poor  idea  of  the  roundness,  the  completeness,,  and 
the  inclusiveness  of  the  Christian  life.  Suppose  that 
next  summer  should  grow  little  but  sunflowers,  and  the 
following  mainly  abound  in  roses,  and  the  third  be  chiefly 
distinguished  for  violets  :  however  rich  might  be  the 
product  of  each,  the  summer,  as  a  whole,  would  be  ac- 
counted poor  and  ill  clad.  Summer  develops  all  the 
growing  power  of  the  soil,  and  so  moral  summer  does  not 
bring  forth  an  isolated  excellency,  but  clothes  the  human 
tree  with  "  all  manner  of  fruit.^' 


Mysteries  !  What  are  they  but  as  the  earth  at  night- 
time, speeding  on  with  swift  wing  to  the  all-revealing 
brightness  of  morning  ! 


We  say  of  some  men :  "  They  are  not  altogether  bad ; 
every  now  and  then  they  come  pretty  right ;  so  much  so 
that  it  is  hard  to  distinguish  between  them  and  Christians.''^ 
It  is  much  the  same  as  if  we  should  say  of  a  clock  that  is 
not  going  :  '^  Eeally  that  clock  is  not  so  bad  after  all ; 


270      Ad  Gleriim  :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

every  now  and  then,  twice  in  tlie  twenty- four  hours,  it  is 
perfectly  riglit ;  it  may  be  right  all  day  by-and-by.-" 
No  ;  not  until  the  mechanism  is  put  in  order,  and  the 
pendulum  is  started.  So  with  man :  the  heart  must  be 
riorht  before  the  life  can  be  true. 

o 


Every  man  must  bear  his  testimony  in  his  own  way. 
Standing  in  a  watchmaker's  shop  near  noonday,  I  was 
surprised  to  find  how  many  different  ways  there  are  of 
announcino-  twelve  o'clock.  One  bell  tolled  it  out  in  most 
solemn  tones,  leaving  a  considerable  space  between  the 
resounding  notes ;  another  rattled  off  the  hour  in  a  most 
flippant  manner,  and  seemed  to  say  to  the  first,  ^'  Get  on 
with  you ;  put  some  spirit  into  your  work,  don^t  stand 
droning  there  !  "  One  clock  spoke  with  a  silvery  voice  ; 
another  gave  its  message  with  a  shivering  clang ;  a  third 
repeated  the  hours  as  if  burdened  with  the  effort ;  a  fourth, 
having  struck  twelve  very  cheerfully,  began  to  chime 
most  sweetly.  Every  man,  like  every  clock,  has  his  own 
way ;  the  one  important  thing  is  to  keep  true  time,  and 
not  to  be  ashamed  to  tell  it. 


Some  clocks  don't  strike.  You  must  looh  at  them  if 
you  would  know  the  time.  Some  men  don't  talk  their 
Christianity ;  you  must  look  at  their  lives  if  you  would 
know  what  the  gospel  can  do  for  human  nature.  A  clock 
need  not  be  incorrect  because  it  strikes ;  a  man  need  not 
be  inconsistent  because  he  speaks  as  well  as  acta. 


I  dream  :  far  out  on  the  waste  of  waters  there  moves  a 
pirate  vessel ;  day  by  day  it  preys  upon  the  lawful  com- 


Figures,  Parables,  and  Anecdotes.  271 

merce  of  all  countries  ;  its  decks  are  wet  witli  human 
blood,  and  its  coffers  laden  with  plundered  gold.  It  is 
the  terror  of  all  navigators.  Its  every  pursuit  is  de- 
struction to  the  pursued.  It  fights  no  losing  battles; 
the  mightiest  quail,  the  stoutest  surrender. 

I  dream  still :  over  the  yielding  billows  there  rides  in 
proud  majesty  another  vessel, — vaster,  stronger,  quicker ; 
on  board  is  a  captain  surpassing  all  in  genius,  in  courage, 
in  resources.  Against  his  assaults  all  artillery  is  but  as 
the  rattle  of  a  child^s  toy  against  the  eternal  granite. 
He  strikes  the  pirate  ark  once,  and  again  he  strikes,  and 
once  more  ;  until  the  timbers  rend,  and  the  enemy  is  en- 
gulfed in  the  great  deep. 

What  is  the  interpretation  of  my  vision  ?  What  but 
that  death  is  the  great  enemy  coursing  ever  on  the  seas 
of  human  life,  slaying  the  strong,  blighting  the  beautiful, 
plucking  away  the  young,  and  striking  dread  everywhere  ? 
And  that  great  counteracting  force,  what  is  that  but 
Christ,  who  came  to  "  abolish  death,"  and  give  His  saints 
full  triumph  ?  And  ages  upon  ages  hence,  if  men  should 
inquire  "  Where  is  death  ? "  they  shall  be  answered  as 
with  the  voice  of  many  waters — swallowed  up  in  victoey  ! 


Preachers  and  teachers  of  all  degrees  may  know  the 
way  to  heaven,  yet  never  walk  in  it,  just  as  a  man  may 
know  every  detail  of  the  railway  timetable  and  yet  never 
take  a  journey.  Men  who  spend  their  lives  in  preparing 
other  people  for  heaven,  but  never  advance  themselves 
towards  it,  may  be  likened  to  the  inspectors,  porters,  and 
other  railway  servants,  who  are  occupied  in  setting  out 
travellers,  but  who  themselves  never  see  the  ocean  or  the 
landscape. 


272       Ad  Glenim ;    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

It  is  right  for  you,  young  men,  to  enricli  yourselves 
witli  tlie  spoils  of  all  pure  literature ;  but  lie  wlio  would 
make  a  favourite  of  a  bad  book,  simply  because  it  con- 
tained a  few  beautiful  passages,  might  as  well  caress  the 
hand  of  an  assassin  because  of  the  jewellery  which  sparkles 
on  its  fingers. 

A  great  deal  of  misery  would  be  prevented,  if  ministers 
would  endeavour  to  form  an  honest  estimate  of  their 
qualifications,  and,  as  a  consequence,  seek  appointments 
for  which  they  are  specially  qualified.  If  one  might  teach 
unpleasant  doctrines  through  the  medium  of  a  figure,  one 
can  imagine  how  inconvenient  it  would  be  in  the  event  of 
a  great  cathedral  clock  wearing  out,  for  a  neat  Geneva 
watch  to  put  itself  forward  as  a  candidate  for  the  vacancy. 
The  Geneva  might  be  a  beautiful  little  thing,  and  might 
keep  the  most  exact  time,  and  might  be  called  endearing 
names  by  ladies  and  little  children;  yet,  to  speak  the 
language  of  charity,  it  might  hardly  be  adapted  to  be  set 
a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  ground,  in  a  circular 
vacancy  at  least  ten  feet  in  diameter.  In  such  a  case  its 
very  elevation  would  become  its  obscurity.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  would  be  quite  as  inconvenient  if  a  great 
cathedral  clock,  weary  of  city  work,  should  ask  to  be  car- 
ried about  as  a  private  timekeeper.  There  is  a  moral  in 
the  figure.  That  moral  points  towards  the  law  of  propor- 
tion and  adaptation.  One  can  imagine  the  petted  Geneva 
looking  up  from  a  lady's  hand,  and  calling  the  cathedral 
clock  a  great,  coarse  thing,  with  a  loud  and  vulgar  voice, 
which  indicated  the  most  offensive  presumption ;  and  we 
can  imagine  the  cathedral  clock  looking  down,  with  some- 
what of  disdain,  upon  the  little  timekeeping  toy.     Oh  that 


Figures,  ParahleSj  and  Anecdotes.  273 

some  sensible  chronometer  would  say  to  tlie  rivals^ — 
"  Cease  your  contention ;  you  are  both  useful  in  your 
places/'  The  one  as  a  private  chaplain,  the  other  as  a 
city  orator,  may  tell  the  world  to  redeem  its  flying  time. 


Though  mysteries  culminate  in  the  Cross,  yet  there  is 
enough  revealed  in  the  Cross  for  man's  present  pardon, 
and  his  final  enfranchisement  in  heavenly  immortality. 
The  secret  things  are  not  ours, — the  revealed  things  are. 
We  have  not  so  much  to  do  with  the  top  of  the  ladder, 
which  is  lost  in  the  efiulgence  of  the  heavens,  as  with  the 
foot  of  it,  which  rests  on  the  earth ;  nor  have  we  so  much 
to  do  with  the  bright  angel  ministrants  who  throng  it,  as 
with  the  messages  of  mercy  and  hymns  of  hope  which 
escape  their  tuneful  lips.  Fool  is  he  who,  in  running  from 
a  town  in  flames,  will  not  cross  the  river  until  he  speculates 
concerning  the  architecture  of  the  bridge,  and  makes  in- 
quiry into  the  origin  and  the  date  of  its  building.  ^^  Speed 
away  from  the  pursuing  flame,''  say  you;  ^^ tarry  not 
until  you  are  far  beyond  its  range,  and  afterwards,  if  you 
please,  discuss  your  speculations  concerning  the  bridge." 
The  illustration  may  be  applied  to  the  sinner  who  wishes 
to  escape  from  his  sin.  His  first  business  is  to  reduce  to 
practice  all  that  he  does  understand,  to  manifest  a  disposi- 
tion to  accept  all  the  arrangements  of  Divine  wisdom,  and 
in  childlike  trust  to  give  himself  up  to  God.  The  Cross 
has  a  side  that  is  "  secret,"  and  a  side  that  is  ^^  revealed  " 
— a  side  that  shines  towards  God,  and  a  side  that  shines 
towards  a  sinning  world.  It  lights  the  heavens  as  well  as 
the  earth,  but  man's  whole  business  now  is  to  accept  the 
beam  which  falls  upon  himself,  and  in  its  light  to  penetrate 
his  way  to  the  higher  and  better  spheres.     ...     Do 


274      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Treacher, 

not  anticipate  the  course  of  study.  The  volumes  will  be 
given^  by  the  great  Librarian,  one  by  one.  Understand 
what  you  can,  and  in  doing  it  you  will  increase  in  know- 
ledge;  understand  that  in  all  tlie  wastes  of  folly  there 
can  be  no  greater  fool  than  he  who  will  not  believe  his 
Father's  telegram  because  he  cannot  understand  the 
mystery  of  the  telegraph. 


Circumstances  have  much  to  do  with  the  formation  of 
opinions.  I  overlook  from  my  window  a  field  which  in 
April  looks  like  a  desert ;  it  is  flat,  sterile,  and  most  dreary 
in  aspect,  not  a  green  thing  visible  in  all  the  breadth  of  its 
twenty  acres ;  it  looks  like  a  plague  spot  on  the  landscape, 
and  the  eye  turns  from  it  as  from  a  repulsive  spectacle. 
In  August  that  same  field  is  the  richest,  the  grandest  in 
the  whole  prospect,  for  then  it  is  laden  with  golden  wheat. 
It  is  the  same  field,  yet  how  different  the  appearance  ! 
So  I  have  observed  that  young  men  who  modestly  begin 
life  with  little  or  no  demonstrativeness,  often  have  a  very 
luxuriant  and  substantial  maturity.  It  is  well  to  defer 
our  judgments  until  August. 


The  gospel  of  Christ  may  be  either  the  savour  of  life 
unto  life  to  a  hearer,  or  a  savour  of  death  unto  death. 
How  so  ?  All  depends  upon  the  man  himself.  The  sun 
brings  life  to  some  branches,  and  death  to  others.  If  a 
branch  is  on  the  tree,  and  the  tree  is  properly  rooted  in 
the  soil,  the  sun  will  bring  life  to  it ;  but  if  the  branch  be 
amputated,  the  sun  will  wither  it  to  death.  It  is  the  same 
sun,  and  the  branches  have  grown  in  the  same  forest,  or 
even  on  the  same  tree ;  and  yet  the  shining  of  the  sun 


Figures,  Parables j  and  Anecdotes.  275 

means  life  to  the  one  and  death  to  tlie  other.  It  is  pre- 
cisely so  with,  the  gospel :  if  a  man  will  not  put  himself  in 
a  right  relation  to  it^  it  will  be  his  utter  destruction. 


All  men  cannot  work  in  the  same  way  :  "  there  are 
diversities  of  operation/^  Upon  the  face  of  a  watch  you 
may  see  an  illustration  of  my  meaning.  On  that  small 
space  you  have  three  workers :  there  is  the  second- 
pointer^  performing  rapid  revolutions ;  there  is  the 
minute-pointer,  goi^g  ^t  a  greatly  reduced  speed;  and 
there  is  the  hour-pointer,  tardier  still.  Now  any  one 
unacquainted  with  the  mechanism  of  a  watch  would  con- 
clude that  the  busy  little  second -pointer  was  doing  all  the 
work, — it  is  clicking  away  at  sixty  times  the  speed  of  the 
minute-pointer ;  and  as  for  the  hour-hand,  that  seems  to 
be  doing  no  work  at  all.  You  can  see  in  a  moment  that 
the  first  is  busy,  and  in  a  short  time  you  will  see  the  second 
stir  j  but  you  must  wait  still  longer  to  assure  yourself  of 
the  motion  of  the  third.  So  is  it  in  the  church.  There 
are  active,  fussy  men,  who  appear  to  be  doing  the  work  of 
the  whole  community,  and  others  who  are  slower.  But 
can  we  do  without  the  minute  and  the  hour  pointers  ? 
The  noisy  second-hand  might  go  round  its  little  circle 
for  ever  without  telling  the  world  the  true  time.  We 
should  be  thankful  for  all  kinds  of  workers.  The  silent, 
steady  hour-hand  need  not  envy  its  noisy  little  colleague. 
Each  man  must  fill  the  measure  of  his  capacity.  Your 
business  is  to  do  your  allotted  work  so  as  to  meet  the 
approbation  of  the  Master. 


I  saw  a  man  watering  the  roads  this  morning.     He  was 
very  careful  where  he  began  and  where  he  ended.     Three 

T  2 


2  76       Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

hours  afterwards  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  fell^  and  it  blessed 
the  whole  neighbourhood  with  its  impartial  benediction. 
Thus  it  is  with  law  and  grace ;  and  thus  too  it  is  with 
people  who  work  from  the  point  of  duty  and  the  nobler 
people  who  work  from  the  point  of  love. 


From  figure  to  parable  is  not  a  difficult  transition.  I 
have  found  in  the  course  of  my  own  ministry  that  para- 
bolical representations  of  truth  have  excited  a  most  health- 
ful and  profitable  interest.  All  men  have  somewhat  of 
the  dramatic  element  in  them ;  hence  they  watch  with 
eagerness  the  development  and  consummation  of  a  plot^  or 
a  plan^  if  you  like  that  word  better  in  this  connection. 
How  will  it  end  ?  is  the  anxious  inquiry.  If  you  keep 
your  eyes  open  you  will  see  the  working  of  this  dramatic 
element  in  many  of  the  common  concerns  of  daily  life. 
Dispute  with  a  cabman  about  his  fare;  and  the  baker, 
the  milkman^  and  the  lamplighter  will  soon  gather  round 
you  to  see  how  the  controversy  will  end :  ofi"er  to  put  a 
hundred  pieces  of  curiously  shaped  wood  together,  so  as 
to  make  a  complete  figure  of  them,  and  all  the  children  in 
the  house  will  give  up  their  lessons,  and  press  upon  you 
to  see  how  the  mystery  is  solved  :  tell  a  chilH  that  it  is 
his  duty  to  be  honest,  and  he  will  infallibly  pronounce  you 
a  bore ;  but  give  him  a  hint  that  you  can  tell  a  wonderful 
story  about  the  hairbreadth  escapes  of  a  thief,  and  he  will 
tease  you  to  relate  the  tale,  and  will  perhaps  beg  you  to 
go  over  parts  of  it  again  and  again.  What  of  it — and 
especially  what  of  it  in  relation  to  the  ministry  ?  We 
must  seek  the  readiest  entrance  to  the  human  mind,  and 


Figures,  Parables ,  and  Anecdotes.  277 

tlirougli  fhat  entrance  must  convey  Christian  instruction. 
I  know  that  you  will  ask,  whether  this^  that^  or  the  other 
is  legitimate,  or  is  in  keeping  with  the  dignity  of  the 
pulpit.  Enough  for  me  to  know  that  Jesus  Christ 
dramatised  truth:  all  the  elements  of  a  most  exciting 
romance  are  to  be  found  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal 
son;  why  therefore  should  we  hesitate  to  follow,  with  such 
power  as  God  may  give  us,  the  example  of  the  Master  ? 
Everywhere  there  is  keen  interest  in  life,  character, 
destiny ;  little  children  feel  it,  and  old  men  are  not  su- 
perior to  it.  This  interest  has  undoubtedly  been  debased 
by  vicious  novels  and  corrupt  dramas,  but  this  is  no  argu- 
ment whatever  against  novels  and  dramas  that  are  good. 
You  can  convey  just  as  much  solid  truth  through  the 
medium  of  a  drama  as  through  the  medium  of  an  exposi- 
tion or  exhortation,  with  this  most  valuable  advantage, — 
you  carry  the  attention  of  your  hearers  with  you  from 
beginning  to  end,  and  are  likely  to  give  the  subject  an 
abiding  place  in  their  recollection.  Of  course,  if  you  con- 
struct a  clumsy  or  inconsistent  parable,  you  must  bear  the 
mockery  which  you  deserve.  I  am  speaking  of  parables 
that  recommend  themselves  by  a  basis  of  strong  common 
sense  and  a  fair  share  of  fancy  and  eloquence;  such 
parables,  delivered  with  a  simplicity  which  is  at  the 
farthest  possible  distance  from  theatrical  affectation,  will 
never  fail  to  secure  the  best  results. 

In  writing  thus,  a  great  fear  comes  upon  me  lest  you 
should  be  indiscreet  enough  to  ask  me  to  show  you  how 
such  parables  may  be  written.  Perhaps  I  do  you  injustice 
in  supposing  that  you  would  condescend  to  ask  such  a 
question ;  yet  I  feel  some  relief  in  being  permitted  to 
indulge   a    supposition  so    dishonouring  to    your   proud 


278       Ad  Clerum:    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher, 

powers.  It  would  display  sound  judgment  on  my  part, 
were  I  to  try  to  bring  tlie  requisite  fancy,  wit,  and 
wisdom,  to  bear  upon  the  (Outline  and  execution  of  your 
task ;  but  I  am  afraid  tlie  advice  would  not  be  of  much 
service  to  you.  Frankly  then,  I  own  that  the  power  of 
writing  parables  is  not  so  freely  distributed  a^  the  power 
of  reading  them.  If  you  have  not  the  power,  don^t  waste 
your  time  in  parable  grinding.  A  poor  sermon  is  bad 
enough,  but  a  poor  parable  is  intolerable.  A  parable  that 
is  cumbrous,  mechanical,  laboured,  will  offend  and  weary 
the  unhappy  victims  on  whose  patience  it  is  inflicted_^  and 
their  maledictions  will  be  the  fit  reward  of  the  foolish 
speaker.  There  must  be  no  display  of  mere  cleverness  in 
the  construction  of  the  parable  ;  the  moment  the  hearers 
are  so  far  released  from  the  grasp  of  the  thought  as  to 
think  anything  about  the  forms,  the  highest  object  of 
teaching  is  lost.  This  being  so,  the  Christian  parabolist 
cannot  allow  himself  to  dally  over  points  on  which  the 
mere  artist  may  lawfully  linger ;  the  preacher  is  more  than 
an  artist,  and  is  therefore  bound  to  watch  himself  jealously 
lest  art  become  a  temptation  to  him.  The  preacher  is  an 
architect,  it  is  true;  but  he  is  specially  a  6zi/?c?er.  His 
plans  may  be  good,  what  if  he  build  nothing  ?  He  must 
build,  and  he  must  build  completely.  Each  parable  must 
have  its  own  distinct  lesson  ;  if  it  be  fragmentary  it  will 
be  distracting  and  useless,  and  truth  will  be  dishonoured. 
The  execution  may  not  be  polished,  but  the  conception 
must  be  complete.  The  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  is 
complete,  though  there  is  no  attempt  at  literary  embellish- 
ment. You  must  have  an  object,  and  towards  that  you 
must  move  steadily  and  fervently.  Before  beginning 
your  parable,  put  to   yourself  the  question — What   end 


Figures  J  Parables,  and  Anecdotes.  279 

have  I  in  view  ?  Suppose  tlie  answer  be_,  to  prove  that 
the  way  of  transgressors  is  hard ;  or^  to  show  that  the 
paths  of  wisdom  are  pleasant ;  or,  to  point  out  what  may- 
be done  by  faith, — you  have  then  to  outline  a  narrative 
which  will  most  graphically  illustrate  your  meaning :  you 
have  the  main  point,  and  it  remains  to  gather  around  it 
elucidatory  material.  This  is  perhaps  an  infelicitous  way 
of  insisting  that  your  teaching  must  be  distinct ;  it  must 
not  be  simply  allusive ;  people  must  not  be  thrown  upon 
their  skill  in  drawing  inferences ;  the  doctrine  must  be 
clear,  the  lesson  must  be  emphatic. 

I  confess  to  some  difficulty  in  giving  advice  about  the 
use  of  anecdotes,  as,  in  my  opinion,  nearly  everything 
depends  upon  the  taste  and  skill  of  the  relator.  The  same 
anecdote  told  by  two  different  men  may  produce  two  con- 
trary effects, — it  may  disgust,  and  it  may  please.  When 
there  is  drawling  over  unimportant  points,  or  heaviness 
in  the  expression,  or  a  long  preamble  before  the  story, 
the  effect  is  sure  to  be  bad.  As  soon  as  I  hear  a  preacher 
say, — "  My  beloved  brethren,  let  us  illustrate  this  by  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  affecting  anecdotes  which  it 
was  ever  my  privilege  to  hear,''  I  make  up  my  mind  to 
endure  a  dreary  recital  of  very  painful  nonsense.  Anec- 
dotes should  not  be  prefaced.  Anecdotes  should  not  be 
long.  Anecdotes  should  be  true.  I  have  heard  of  a 
preacher  who  in  one  discourse  related  twenty- seven 
anecdotes,  yet  they  were  so  skilfully  introduced  and  so 
pithily  told  as  to  be  quite  enjoyed  by  educated  and  critical 
hearers.  This  is  an  exceptional  case  :  don't  set  it  up  as 
a  model,  or  I  shall  never  hear  a  good  account  of  you.  If 
you  can  now  and  again  put  a  simple  and  telling  anecdote 
into  your  sermon,  do  so ;  but  be  very  careful  not  to  go 


280       Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

anecdote  mad.  People  will  believe  in  parables  when  they 
will  distrust  anecdotes.  They  know  that  a  parable  is 
imaginative,  but  they  expect  an  anecdote  to  be  literal ; 
and  if  once  they  catch  the  relater  tripping,  there  is  an  end 
to  their  confidence,  not  only  in  the  speech  but  in  the 
speaker. 

In  all  our  ministry  we  have  to  magnify  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  Saviour  of  the  world ;  and  whether  it  be  by  figure 
and  parable,  or  by  the  plain  statement  of  doctrine,  let  ns 
be  sure  that  we  reach  the  highest  point  of  our  vocation. 
At  the  base  of  your  ministry  let  there  be  sound, 
enlightened,  fearless,  and  reVerent  exposition  of  the 
Divine  word  ;  without  that  your  ministry  will  be  a  failure, 
you  will  never  train  men ;  you  may  please  giddy  and 
shallow  listeners,  but  no  manly  host  will  prove  the  vigour 
of  your  teaching.  Having  laid  your  foundations,  you  may 
call  up  all  your  powers  and  attainments  to  give  scope, 
massiveness,  and  beauty  to  the  building.  Don^t  lay  an 
interdict  upon  your  fancy;  don^tbe  afraid  of  the  occasional 
service  of  humour;  don^t  always  put  a  seal  upon  your  wit; 
let  your  whole  nature  preach;  let  fancy,  humour,  wit, 
sarcasm,  contribute  their  share  of  help  to  your  ministry; 
they  will  be  of  use  as  allies,  if  you  be  careful  to  have 
something  stronger  on  the  main  line.  If  you  honour 
Christ  in  your  ministry,  you  will  be  honoured  by  Him  in 
return.  When  the  fisherman  goes  to  the  river,  it  is  that 
he  may  attempt  to  take  fish  ;  are  not  you  a  fisher  of  men  ? 
Why  not  then  go  to  every  sermon  with  the  one  set  pur- 
pose of  bringing  men  to  the  Saviour  ?  That  is  the  one 
object  of  the  true  ministry.  We  have  to  bring  men  to 
Christ  as  a  Saviour,  and  we  have  also  to  bring  men  to 
Christ  as  a  Teacher,     Eepentance  and  faith  are  not  the 


Figures y  Parables,  and  Anecdotes.  281 

end,  tliey  are  but  tlie  beginniDg  of  Christian  life.  We 
seek  conversion  first,  tlien  we  aim  at  edification,  Tlirougli- 
out  tlie  process  we  are  tlie  agents,  tlio  servants,  tlie  am- 
bassadors of  Christ, — He  will  honour  those  who  wait 
upon  Him,  if  they  forget  themselves  in  the  glory  of  His 
blessed  name. 


XIX. 
FEAMEWOEKS. 

I  HAVE  given  you  a  few  hints  upon  figures ;  let  me 
now  further  expose  myself  to  your  criticism  by  offering 
you  a  few  crude  outlines  of  discourses.  I  have  not  spared 
you ;  there  is  no  occasion  for  you  to  spare  me.  Use  your 
keenest  edge^  and  give  full  swing  to  your  young  strength. 
I  care  less  and  less  for  mere  outlines,  and  more  and  more 
for  a  sympathetic  and  intelligent  discussion  of  the  subject 
of  any  text.  Some  preachers  are  outline  mad ;  they  are 
nothing  but  outline ;  they  plan  beautifully,  but  build 
nothing.  Give  them  the  word  tkinMng  as  a  text,  and 
they  will  see  in  it :  (1)  Man  in  a  reduced  physical  state — 
thin;  (2)  man  in  a  high  social  state — hing  ;  (3)  man  in 
a  true  intellectual  state — thinking.  Give  them  as  a  text 
the  word  feeblest ,  and  they  will  see  in  it :  (1)  A  profes- 
sional income— /ee  ;  (2)  an  indication  of  supreme  happi- 
ness— blest ;  (3)  a  description  of  a  human  state  deserving 
commiseration — feeblest.  Give  them  for  a  text  the  words 
Gome  unto  Me,  and  they  will  see  in  fchem :  (1)  A  state  of 
activity — come  ;  (2)  activity  well  directed — unto ;  (3)  ac- 
tivity terminating  upon  the  best  of  beings — Me.  The 
outlining  of  which  this  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  is 
irreverent  trifling  with  the  inspired  word;  it  shows  off 
the  poor  powers  of  the  textual  gymnast,  and  by  so  much 
degrades  and  insults  the  holy  vocation  of  the  Christian 


Frameworhs.  283 

ministry.  Study  tlie  idea  of  tlie  text ;  try  to  pierce  to  its 
very  heart ;  and  having  seized  the  truth,  expound  it  with 
all  simplicity  and  earnestness.  With  these  introductory 
remarks,  let  me  place  before  you  a  few  outlines  which 
may  be  quite  as  useful  as  warnings  as  examples. 


I.  Tlie  Private  Ministry  of  the  Gospel. 

*'  Philip  findeth  Nathanael,  and  saith  unto  him,  We  have  found  Him,  of 
whom  Moses  in  the  law,  and  the  prophets,  did  write  ;"  etc. — John  i.  45-51. 

The  scene :  one  man  speaking  to  another  about  Jesus 
Christ  ! 

I.  Every  Christian  has  a  message  to  the  world: 
'^  we  have  found  Him/^  etc.  The  message  is  founded 
upon  matter  of  fact,  and  is  supported  hj  personal  testimony. 
The  responsibility  of  silence. 

II.  Every  Christian  may  expect  to  encounter  con- 
troversial INQUIRIES.  Nathanael  put  the  question  of 
prejudice :  others  will  start  critical,  metaphysical,  and 
ethical  difficulties.  No  subject  more  deeply  agitates  the 
mind  than  Christianity.  This  is  in  its  favour ;  so  profound 
and  comprehensive  a  revelation  must  appeal  to  all  that 
is  highest  and  mightiest  in  man. 

III.  Every  Christian  has  a  practical  answer  to  such 
inquiries  :  ^'  Philip  saith  unta  him.  Come  and  see ;  '' — 
not  discussion,  but  fact.  Jesus  adopted  the  same  method 
with  the  disciples  of  John,  The  works  of  Christianity 
are  its  best  defence.  We  know  that  the  Bible  is  inspired 
because  of  its  inspiring  influence  upon  human  life.  The 
Christian  advocate  should  always  take  the  inquirer 
directly  to  Jesus  Christ.     A  Christian  man  should  be  a 


284       Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

convincing  reply  to  all  scepticism  ;  his  life  should  be  his 
argument. 

TV.  Every  Christian  will  witness  the  happiest  results 
OF  AN  ACCEPTANCE  OF  HIS  MESSAGE.  It  was  SO  in  the  case  of 
Nathanael.  (1)  Jesus  Christ  showed  familiarity  with  his 
history  ;  every  man  feels  that  Jesus  Christ  speaks  to  him 
personally ;  in  no  case  did  Jesus  Chris fc  require  any  in- 
formation respecting  those  who  came  to  Him.  He  seemed 
to  carry  each  man^s  history  in  His  own  great  life.  (2) 
Jesus  Christ  wrought  in  him  the  joy  of  personal  convic- 
tion :  "  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God/^  etc.  Christianity  is 
not  altogether  a  matter  of  external  evidence  ;  it  becomes 
part  of  the  man's  very  soul;  hence  the  authority  with 
which  men  can  speak  of  their  Divinest  experiences.  (3) 
He  gave  him  tlie  prospect  of  still  fuller  revelation ; 
^^  hereafter  ye  shall  see  heaven  opened/'  etc.  Acceptance 
of  Christ  is  not  a  final  act ;  it  is  the  initiation  of  the  soul 
into  an  unending  course  of  development  of  strength  and 
love.  The  Christian  will  ever  have  more  to  ''  see ''  than 
he  has  yet  seen.  '^  Eye  hath  not  seen/'  etc.  '^  He  is 
able  to  do  exceedingly  above/'  etc. 

Aioplicatioyi :  Preach  to  one  man  ;  preach  Christ  to  him ; 
preach  Christ  to  him  on  the  authority  of  personal  experi- 
ence. 


II.  The  Divine  Echo  in  the  Human  Heart. 
'♦  Well,  Master,  Thou  hast  said  the  truth."— Make  xii.  32. 

God's  word  may  be  received  controversially,  specula- 
tively, or  lovingly ;  men  may  argue  about  it,  or  let  it  argue 
with  them  to  their  conviction  and  redemption.  Take  for 
example  the  doctrine,  Man  is  a  sinner.    You  may  make 


Frameworlis,  285 

it  a  matter  of  controversy^  and  by  all  tlie  poor  devices  of 
self  conceit  may  endeavour  to  escape  its  consequences  ;  it 
may  be  met  by  flat  denial,  or  received  with,  many  modifi- 
cations. But  take  it  into  the  heart,  wlien  tbe  heart  is  in 
its  best  mood,  ponder  it  when  far  from  the  influence  of 
the  world^s  excitement  and  flattery,  and  say  whether 
there  be  not  a  voice  which  responds  affirmatively  to  the 
tremendous  charge.  Take  again  the  doctrine,  Man  needs 
a  Saviour.  It  is  possible  to  meet  such  a  doctrine  in  a 
captious  and  resentful  spirit ;  it  denies  the  possibility  of 
self  redemption ;  it  dismisses  all  the  fancies  which  the 
soul  has  been  treasuring,  and  shows  man  his  poverty  and 
weakness.  But  take  it  also  into  the  heart,  under  circum- 
stances which  allow  it  to  be  fairly  considered,  when  the 
heart  knows  most  of  its  own  bitterness,  and  has  seen  the 
limit  of  the  world^s  little  power,  and  say  whether  there 
be  not  a  voice  answering  God's  appeal  with,  ''Well, 
Master,  Thou  hast  said  the  truth.'''  We  do  not  ask  for 
the  acceptance  of  doctrines  which  ignore  or  override  the 
instincts  and  experience  of  the  world;  on  the  contrary, 
Christianity  addresses  itself  to  the  intuitions  of  every 
man. 

What  are  the  loradical  consequences  of  our  having  this 
responsive  faculty  ?  I.  Man  is  made  a  co-woeker  with 
God;  not  a  machine,  but  a  cooperating  agent.  This 
gives  confidence  to  personal  hope  and  authority  to  per- 
sonal teaching.  II.  Man  enjoys  the  eesteaints  of  con- 
science. Upon  practical  morals  man  is  his  own  Bible; 
he  carries  an  unwritten  law  which  warns  him  from  for- 
bidden ground.  The  conscience  i&  God^s  witness  in  our 
apostasy.  The  Bible  appeals  to  it,  and  works  'with  its 
full  consent.     III.  God   bases  His  judgment  upon  this 


28G      Ad  Clenim :    Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

EESPONSiVE  FACULTY :  "  To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good/^ 
etc. ;  ^'  Thou  wicked  and  slothful  servant,  thou  knowest/' 
etc.  The  judgment  day  will  be  shorty  because  every  man 
will  be  his  own  witness. 

Application :  Is  there  nothing  in  you  which  responds 
to  the  appeals  of  the  gospel,  which  says,  ^^Master,  Thou 
hast  said  the  truth  ''  ?  Your  treatment  of  that  voice  will 
determine  your  destiny.  "  Quench  not  the  Spirit.''^  "  He 
that  knoweth  his  Lord^s  will,  and  doeth  it  not,"*^  etc. 


III.  God's  Revelation  of  Himself. 

«'  I  am  the  Lord,  the  God  of  all  flesh :  is  there  anything  too  hard  for  Me  ?  " 
— Jer.  sxxii.  27. 

This  is  God^s  revelation  of  Himself — not  the  fancy  of 
a  speculator,  not  the  dream  of  a  poet,  but  a  Divine  and 
authoritative  declaration  of  personality,  relationship,  and 
power.  Peculiar  importance  attaches  to  the  very  form 
of  expression,  inasmuch  as  it  assumes  to  be  the  precise 
language  which  has  fallen  from  the  lips  of  the  Almighty. 
No  man  is  at  liberty  to  adopt  the  words ;  if  they  are  not 
what  they  profess  to  be,  they  are  the  utterance  of  daring 
blasphemy.  It  is  our  joy  to  believe  in  their  simple 
truth,  and  to  govern  our  lives  by  the  holy  principles  which 
they  imply. 

"  I  am  the  Lord:''  here  is  a  direct  assertion  of  person- 
ality ;  it  is  not  the  voice  of  creation,  but  the  voice  of  the 
Creator;  not  only  life,  but  the  living  One.  We  have 
need  to  be  assured  of  Grod^s  personality ;  He  never  ap- 
pears t(S  our  natural  vision :  we  see  the  works,  but  not 
the  Worker ;  and  many  a  time  the  heart  desires  a  clearer 


Framewor'ks.  237 

revelation  of  tlie  Divine  nature  tlian  is  supplied  by  tlie 
sublimities  and  beauties  of  creation.  In  all  ages  man 
bas  desired  to  come  near  bis  Maker,  to  get  beyond  tbe 
courts  of  tbe  temple  in  wbicb  He  is  entbroned,  and  to 
bebold  Him  as  it  were  face  to  face.  Job  said :  "  Ob,  tbat 
I  knew  wbere  I  migbt  find  Him/^  It  was  not  enougb  to 
live  in  His  ligbt,  and  to  be  surrounded  by  tbe  tokens  of 
His  power ;  be  wisbed  to  look  upon  Him  and  to  speak 
to  Him,  as  a  man  migbt  speak  to  bis  friend.  We  cannot 
enter  into  all  tbe  reasons  wby  we  are  excluded  from  a 
sigbt  of  God^s  personality ;  but  we  bave  rest  in  tbe 
belief  tbat  in  anotber  tbeatre  we  sball  be  satisfied  tbat 
wbile  in  tbe  flesb,  oppressed  by  its  guilt  and  limited 
by  its  weakness,  we  could  not  bave  borne  tbe  reve- 
lation for  wbicb,  in  our  ignorance,  we  bave  often  sigbed. 
Surely  God  will  not  reproacb  us  for  our  desire  to  look 
upon  Him,  if  tbat  desire  be  tbe  expression  of  filial  love 
and  not  of  sinful  audacity.  Is  it  unnatural  tbat  a  cbild 
sbould  wisb  to  see  bis  Fatber,  especially  wben  tbat 
Fatber  is  so  near  as  to  be  able  to  speak  to  bim,  often  by 
name  and  always  in  tbe  language  of  wisdom  and  love  ? 
Tbe  very  nearness  constitutes  a  temptation.  Were  tbe 
name  announced  in  distant  tbuuder,  as  if  it  were  too 
awful  to  be  uttered  in  tbe  language  of  men,  we  migbt 
tremble,  and  reverently  abide  tbe  time  of  more  intimate 
revelation ;  but  wben  tbe  voice  is  nigb  us,  wben  it  is 
even  in  our  souls,  stimulating  and  comforting  us,  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  tbat  we  sbould  wisb  to  see  tbe  all- 
gracious  and  ever  abiding  Speaker.  Denied  tbis  sigbt, 
we  take  refuge  in  sucb  declarations  as  tbe  text;  we 
accept  tbe  abounding  manifestations  of  goodness  as  a 
pledge  tbat  wben  our  discipline  is    complete    and   our 


288      Ad  Clerum :    Advices  to  cu  Young  Preacher, 

faculties  are  mature  we  sliall  assuredly  see  tlie  King  in 
His  beauty. 

^^  I  am  the  Lord.'*  Here  is  a  direct  assertion_,  not  only 
of  personality,  but  of  absolute  dominion.  God  does  not 
announce  Himself  as  a  lord,  one  of  many;  but  as  the 
Lord,  the  one  and  only  Sovereign,  wliose  glory  is  incom- 
municable, and  wbose  empire  is  tlie  universe.  There  is 
no  hesitation  in  the  language;  it  is  complete,  absolute, 
and  final.  To  accept  it  is  to  be  saved  from  all  wandering 
of  heart  towards  the  "  lords  many  and  gods  many  '^  of 
pagan  superstition  or  semi-Christian  speculation.  This 
gives  steadiness  of  heart ;  it  defines  alike  the  Divine  and 
human  position,  and  develops  the  strength  by  showing 
the  weakness  of  all  finite  life. 


IV.  Christian  Experience. . 

*'  I  am  crucified  with  Christ,'" 

"  I  would  to  God  that  all  that  hear  me  were  such  as  I  am." 

*'  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am." 

I.  Christian  experience  is  personal.  "I  am*' :  (a) 
internal;   {h)  intense;    (c)  vital. 

II.  Christian  experience  is  benevolent.  ^'  I  would  to 
God,^'  etc. :  {a)  Christianity  enlarges  human  sympathies  ; 
{b)  Christianity  compels  to  noble  action  in  behalf  of 
others. 

III.  Christian  experience  is  Divine.  *'  By  the  grace 
of  God.-'^  It  is  a  Divine  eSect :  {a)  mysterious ;  {h) 
generous;   (c)   complete. 


FrameworJis.  289 

V.  First  Efforts. 
"  This  beginning  of  miracles  did  Jesus,"  etc. — John  ii.  11. 

I.  The  memorahleness  of  first  eflPorts  (in  every  depart- 
ment of  life) . 

II.  Tlie  determining  effects  of  first  efi'orts  (encouraging^ 
discouraging;  beginnings  often  determine  ends). 

III.  The  modesty  of  first  efforts  (compared  with  Christ^s 
other  miracleS;  this  seems,  in  many  respects^  to  be  the 
simplest  of  them  all).  Encourage  men  to  make  first 
efi'orts — first  efi*orts  in  family  prayer^  public  prayer^ 
Christian  service;  etc. 


YI.   The  Mission  of  Christ. 

"  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." — 
Luke  xix.  10. 

I.  The  most  magnificent  historical  fact :  ''came." 

II.  The  most  appallingly  significant  mission :  ''  to 
seel.'' 

III.  The  most  transcendently  beneficent  jpiir^ose  :  ''  to 
save.'' 

IV.  The  most  perfect  description  of  the  state  of  hu- 
manity :  ''lost." 

(a)  If  Christ  came,  manV  responsibility  is  increased. 
(b)  If  Christ  came  to  seeh,  then  seek  ye  the  Lord  while 
He  may  be  found,  (c)  If  Christ  came  to  save,  then  the 
sinner  is  without  excuse,  (d)  If  Christ  came  to  save  the 
lost,  then  the  worst  may  welcome  Him,  (e)  Christ  will 
come,  will  come  to  seeh,  once  more. 


290       Ad  Glerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

Such  is  a  handful  of  outlines.  Every  man  must  have 
his  own  way  of  making  plans  of  sermons ;  there  is  no 
best  way;  that  way  is  best  which  the  preacher  himself 
has  proved  to  be  best.  We  should  aim  at  variety  in 
division;  sometimes  the  division  may  be  very  formal^ 
sometimes  it  may  be  quite  subordinate.  It  is  not  always 
necessary  to  describe  the  outline  to  the  congregation ; 
occasionally  it  may  be  specified  with  advantage.  You 
must  judge  of  the  circumstances^  and  act  accordingly. 
Beware — suffer  this  word  of  exhortation — of  having  an 
artistic  framework  and  a  lifeless  expansion.  Men  will 
be  affected  more  by  your  tones  than  by  your  heads. 


XX. 

EPILOGUE. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  tbat  tiie  ministerial  market,  if  tlie 
expression  may  be  allowed,  is  overcrowded.  Serious 
inconvenience  arises  from  this  fact.  The  applications 
wliicb  ministers  make  to  one  another  for  introductions  to 
vacant  pulpits  are  not  only  excessively  numerous  but  often 
most  embarrassing.  There  is,  of  course,  a  disposition  to 
be  kind  to  worthy  men,  and  not  seldom  this  disposition 
sets  aside  the  discrimination  which  ought  to  be  exercised 
in  relation  to  the  merits  of  the  applicant  and  the  special 
necessities  of  the  position  to  which  he  wishes  to  be  intro- 
duced. The  difficulty  is  much  increased  by  the  fact  that 
the  applicants  are  men  of  excellent  character,  of  good 
attainments,  and  of  unquestionable  orthodoxy :  the  one 
thing  which  is  wanting  is  puljoit  efficiency.  In  many  cases 
the  defect  in  this  particular  is  most  obvious.  I  know 
men  whose  moral  reputation  is  above  suspicion,  whose 
scholarship  is  sound,  and  whose  doctrine  is  unexception- 
able, men  who  have  college  certificates  and  even  univer- 
sity honours,  who  find  it  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  a 
livelihood  in  the  ministry.  How  so  ?  Simply  because 
they  can  do  nearly  everything  except  jpreach.  In  conver- 
sation they  have  no  difficulty  in  maintaining  their  ground; 
in  point  of  information  they  are  decidedly  above  the 
average;  in  manners  they,  are  fit  for  the  best  society; 

u  2 


292      Ad  Clei'um :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

yet  as  preachers  of  tlie  gospel  they  are  utterly  incom- 
petent. In  looking  at  such  cases  we  must  come  back  to 
our  old  doctrine,  viz.,  ministers  cannot  be  made.  Let 
colleges  exist  for  purposes  of  scholarship,  let  theology 
even  be  taught  to  all  who  wish  to  study  that  greatest  of 
the  sciences,  let  a  special  effort  be  made  by  the  establish- 
ment of  evening  classes  for  teaching  scholars  to  read  the 
Scriptures  in  the  original  languages,; — do  everything  that 
is  possible  for  the  extension  of  biblical  study ;  but  do  not 
continue  to  multiply  a  class  of  able  and  worthy  men 
having  no  adaptation  to  the  public  work  of  the  ministry. 
To  teach  a  man  that  he  is  a  minister,  simply  because  he 
has  completed  a  prescribed  curriculum,  is  to  put  him  into 
an  altogether  false  position.  He  is  not  a  minister  because 
of  that ;  he  may  be  a  scholar,  a  theologian,  a  critic,  but 
it  does  not  follow  that  he  is  a  minister.  Adaptation 
to  the  ministry  is  quite  a  distinct  question.  Every 
Christian  should  study  theology ;  the  study  of  theology 
should  not  be  a  merely  professional  exercise;  ever]) 
Christian  too  should  make  it  his  special  business,  so  far 
as  possible,  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  : 
then,  when  the  highest  education  has  been  made  available 
to  the  whole  church,  let  those  men  who  have  the  gift  of 
preaching  give  public  utterance  to  Divine  truth.  My 
call  is  not  for  a  learned  ministry  but  for  a  learned  church. 
Of  course  there  are  diflSculties  in  the  way  of  such  extension 
of  education  as  is  proposed :  there  will  be  just  complaints 
of  want  of  time,  and  in  some  cases  want  of  capacity;  but 
these  do  not  touch  the  main  question  at  all.  Pojndarise, 
not  professionalise,  theological  education ;  as  in  classics  or 
mathematics,  let  the  doors  be  thrown  open  to  all,  and  when 
it  is  made  clear  that  certain  men  can  excel  in  this  depart- 


Exnlogue.  293 

ment  or  that,  let  an  inner  circle  be  established,  and  the 
highest  advantages  be  offered  to  such  as  have  fully  shown 
claim  to  the  most  advanced  culture  which  the  resources  of 
the  church  can  furnish.  To  my  own  mind  it  is  perfectly 
clear  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  young  men 
who  during  the  last  five  and  twenty  years  have  undergone 
preparation  for  the  ministry  would  to-day  have  been 
doing  much  more  good  had  they  never  aspired  to  the 
pulpit.  At  the  same  time  it  is  equally  clear  that  most  of 
them  were  patient  and  successful  students,  and  well 
deserved  every  commendation  and  honour  accorded  to 
them.  The  mistake  was,  in  my  judgment,  to  encourage 
the  idea  that  they  were  ministers,  and  to  set  them  apart 
as  members  of  a  distinct  professional  class.  In  addition 
to  its  being  a  mistake,  it  inflicted  considerable  injury  upon 
the  men  themselves  :  if  they  had  entered  college  to  become 
scholars,  critics,  and  theologians,  the  end  would  have  been 
answered ;  but  inasmuch  as  they  claimed  to  be  ministers, 
they  were  compelled  to  bear  the  stigma  of  failure  where 
they  might  have  enjoyed  the  honour  of  success.  To  this 
there  is  an  obvious  answer.  The  students  could  not  afford 
the  time  if  they  were  not  by  study  qualifying  themselves 
to  obtain  a  livelihood  by  preaching.  There  is  force  in 
the  answer ;  yet  instead  of  putting  an  end  to  the  difficulty, 
it  rather  suggests  a  further  inquiry.  Can  any  other 
method  than  that  of  the  ordinary  collegiate  system  be 
adopted  for  the  extension  of  theological  knowledge  and  of 
accurate  biblical  learning  ?  The  university  lists  clearly 
show  that  degrees  and  honours  have  been  attained  by 
means  of  ^private  study.  Is  it  not  possible  then,  to 
encourage  private  study  in  theology  and  related  subjects, 
and  to  give  such  recognition  of  results  as  shall  remove  all 


294      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

doubt  of  tlie  competency  of  tlie  student  ?  I  venture  to 
think  tliat  it  is  quite  possible,  and  possible  in  this  way : 
let  an  unsectarian  theological  council  be  established,  and 
let  all  men  of  all  churches,  who  wish  to  be  examined  in 
any  given  number  of  subjects,  present  themselves  for 
examination  at  such  times  as  the  council  may  appoint ; 
and  in  the  event  of  their  satisfying  the  examiners,  let 
them  be  certificated  accordingly.  Suppose  that  such  a 
man  as  Dea.n  Alfoed  should  consent  to  conduct  the  ex- 
amination in  the  Greek  Testament,  and  should  certify 
that  the  student  had  creditably  answered  all  the  questions 
proposed,  would  not  such  a  certificate  carry  with  it  the 
highest  scholastic  and  social  value  ?  So  with  such  a  man 
as  Dean  Stanley  and  the  Old  Testament ;  so  with  Henry 
EoGERS  and  Butler's  Analogy ;  and  so  with  other  com- 
petent examiners  in  various  subjects.  The  council  should, 
of  course,  be  thoroughly  unsectarian ;  no  questions  need 
be  asked  as  to.  the  denominationalism  of  the  candi- 
dates for  examination ;  even  the  names  of  the  candidates 
need  not  be  known  until  the  result  was  declared ;  the 
whole  process  would  have  reference  exclusively  to  the 
merits  of  the  papers  returned  to  the  examiners. 

To  the  establishment  of  such  a  council  it  may  be 
objected,  that  in  private  study  young  men  lose  the  advan- 
tage of  conversational  teaching,  of  stimulus,  of  the  dis- 
cipline of  criticism  and  comparison,  enjoyed  by  those  who 
study  in  company.  True  :  yet  as  it  is  not  proposed  to 
compel  them  to  study  in  solitude,  this  objection  does  not 
apply.  In  some  cases  solitary  study  would  of  course  be 
inevitable;  but  in  others,  by  far  the  most  numerous, 
existing  college  systems  could  be  adapted  to  meet  them. 
Evening  classes  might  be  established ;  small  companies 


Epilogue.  295 

of  young  men  might  engage  tlie  assistance  of  competent 
teachers  to  assist  tliem  in  special  difficulties,, — in  these 
ways  the  objection  might  be  met  to  a  large  degree^  and 
if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  proposed  examination  has 
great  counterbalancing  advantages  the  objection  will 
be  removed  altogether.  Let  it  be  known  that  twice  a 
year  a  Theological  Council  will  be  held  in  London  for  the 
purpose  of  examining  members  of  all  Christian  denomina- 
tions who  wish  to  have  their  knowledge  of  given  subjects 
tested,  and  the  probable  consequence  would  be  an  instant 
and  powerful  stimulus  to  theological  study.  The  unsec- 
tarianism  of  the  council,  its  indisputable  competency,  its 
perfect  impartiality,  would  secure  for  it  profound  and 
universal  confidence.  Six  months  beforehand,  or  twelve, 
the  council  might  publish  the  list  of  subjects  for  the  next 
examination  :  for  example — in  Hebrew,  a  historical  or 
prophetical  book  (to  be  named)  ;  in  Greek,  the  Gospel  by 
Luke  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans ;  in  theology,  six 
subjects,  with  text  books,  to  be  named;  and  the  same 
with  moral  philosophy  and  ecclesiastical  history.  Students 
would  thus  have  something  before  them  worth  striving 
for,  and  by  the  time  they  attained  it  they  would  have  had 
opportunity  of  knowing  themselves  and  forming  a  tolerably 
sound  judgment  as  to  their  fitness  for  the  Christian 
ministry.  For  the  education  of  joreachers,  special  pro- 
vision should  be  made.  Their  preparations  should  be 
superintended  by  men  who  themselves  excel  in  preaching, 
and  who  are  enthusiastic  in  their  convictions  respecting 
the  power  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  Even  though  an  orator 
cannot  reduce  to  rules  the  passion  which  gives  him 
supremacy  in  the  pulpit,  he  can  by  that  very  passion  arouse 
and  encourage  those  who  have  latent  power  of  public 


296      Ad  Clerum :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preaclier, 

address.  The  students  sliould  be  made  to  feel  tliat  their 
teacher  illustrates  in  his  own  ministry  the  grandeur  of 
the  vocation  to  which  they  have  committed  themselves. 
What  if  their  teacher  be  languid  in  his  appreciation  of  the 
pulpit  ?  What  if  he  be  a  preacher  from  whose  ministry 
the  public  have  withdrawn  ?  What  if  he  be  not  a  preacher 
at  all,  but  a  layman  who  could  not  interest  an  audience 
for  ten  minutes  ?  It  is  not  at  all  to  the  point  to  reply 
that  he  is  a  scholar,  a  man  of  taste,  and  a  good  judge  of 
literature.  Granted  that  he  is  all  that,  what  does  it  prove 
if  he  is  not  a  preacher  ?  This  kind  of  service  would  not 
be  tolerated  in  any  other  line  of  life;  why  should  it  be 
tolerated  in  the  highest  of  all  ?  Because  a  man  is  an 
excellent  judge  of  leather,  and  has  correct  information  as 
to  the  anatomy  of  the  human  foot,  is  he  therefore  qualified 
to  teach  the  art  of  shoemaking  ?  If  a  man  never  played 
a  tune  on  a  piano,  would  you  send  a  scholar  to  him  to 
learn  the  use  of  that  instrument  because  the  man  had  a 
fine  ear  for  music  and  had  written  some  excellent  tunes  ? 
It  does  not  follow  that  Shakspeare  was  an  actor,  any 
more  than  that  Garrick  was  an  author.  I  hold  that  essay 
writing  and  sermon  preaching  are  totally  distinct;  that 
literature  and  oratory  are  not  identical ;  and  that  it  is  as 
awkward  for  an  orator  to  consider  his  oratory  a  qualifica- 
)ion  for  teaching  literature,  as  it  is  for  a  scholar  to  con- 
sider his  scholarship  a  qualification  for  teaching  men 
how  to  preach.  He  can  listen  to  their  essays  with  a 
critical  ear,  he  can  correct  their  style,  he  can  give 
direction  to  their  courses  of  thinking ;  but  all  this  does 
not  touch  the  one  question  of  preaching  with  earnest- 
ness, with  power,  and  with  success.  It  will  not  do 
to    say   that    good    scholarship,   sound    theology,  com- 


Epilogue.  297 

petent  criticism,  are  to  be  considered  before  preacliing. 
I  say  notking  about  tbeir  comparative  merits ;  I  bave  to 
deal  witb  tbe  one  fact  tbat  students  are  being  sent  forth 
to  preach.  It  is  as  preachers  tbat  tbey  seek  to  engage  tbe 
confidence  and  support  of  tbe  cburcbes;  it  is  hj  preaching 
tbat  tbey  bave  to  maintain  tbemselves  j  and  if  tbey  fail  in 
preaching  tbey  miss  tbe  end  at  wbicb  tbey  aimed  in  offer- 
ing tbemselves  as  candidates  for  tbe  Christian  ministry. 

Turning  from  tbis  point,  wbicb  I  cannot  but  regard  as 
of  growing  importance,  I  may  relieve  you  by  indulging 
in  a  little  speculation.  Tbe  time  will  come  wben  Sunday 
services  will  be  modelled  upon  a  new  and  better  basis. 
Tbe  minister  will  bave  to  preacb  less  and  to  preacb  better. 
Tbere  will  be  one  service  in  tbe  day, — beginning  say  at 
twelve  o'clock,  and  continuing  about  two  bours;  in  tbe 
evening,  parents  will  bave  time  to  teacb  tbeir  children ; 
and  those  members  of  the  household  who  could  not  go 
out  in  the  morning  will  have  opportunity  of  going  to 
special  services  here  and  there  in  the  evening,  and  it  will 
be  matter  of  surprise  if  any  be  present  in  the  evening 
who  attended  service  in  tbe  morning.  It  is  better  to 
bave  one  well  prepared  and  thoroughly  appreciated 
service,  than  to  drag  through  two  services  witb  tbe 
heaviness  of  indifference.  Those  who  have  been  at 
service  in  the  morning  will  be  doing  work  in  tbe 
evening.  Their  children  will  be  instructed,  tbe  poor  and 
ignorant  will  be  gathered  together,  and  taught  the  way 
of  truth,  and  wherever  Christian  teaching  is  needed  it 
will  be  eagerly  and  gladly  supplied.  Tbe  idea  of  a  man 
bearing  two  sermons  on  one  day  will  be  considered 
either  a  punishment  or  a  waste  of  time;  and  the  days 


298      Ad  Clenim  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

that  are  now  passing  over  us  will  be  laughed  at  for  their 
oddities,  or  pitied  for  their  endurances.  I  know  of  no 
body  of  men  so  hardly  worked  as  the  Nonconformist 
ministers  of  England.  The  lawyers  are  hardly  worked, 
but  they  are  helped  by  the  variety  of  their  labours, 
whereas  the  ministers  are  depressed  by  the  monotony  of 
their  engagements.  It  is  easy  enough  to  reply  that  no 
monotony  ought  to  be  felt  in  Christian  service;  but 
human  nature  is  not  to  be  put  off  or  satisfied  with  a 
remark  which  is  not  sanctioned  either  by  piety  or  com- 
mon sense. 

It  is  to  me  a  pleasant  conviction  that  no  office  is  to  be 
compared,  for  interest,  reality,  and  importance,  with  the 
office  of  the  Christian  ministry.  I  have  followed  the 
course  of  many  men  with  most  anxious  watchfulness, — 
the  lawyer,  the  statesman,  the  physician,  the  dramatist, 
the  poet ;  and  it  is  the  sober  conviction  of  my  mind  that 
not  one  of  them  is  to  be  compared  with  the  earnest, 
intelligent,  and  powerful  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ.  Hav- 
ing regard  to  the  scope,  the  urgency,  and  the  far  reach- 
ing results  of  our  ministry,  we  may  truly  exclaim,  '''all 
things  are  ours.''  The  statesman  operates  within  very 
narrow  limits,  so  does  the  lawyer,  so  does  the  physician ; 
and  whatever  there  may  be  of  depth,  vitality,  and  inspi- 
ration, in  the  highest  intellectual  activities,  is  all  at  the 
service  of  the  interpreter  of  God  and  the  Christian 
teacher  of  man.  I  magnify  mine  office !  Get  a  low 
notion  of  your  work,  and  your  soul  will  go  down,  you 
will  not  bring  to  bear  upon  it  your  passion  and  your 
strength;  have  a  high  notion  of  it,  if  you  would  work 
with  enthusiasm  and  success.  You  must  pray  to  be  saved 


Epilogue.  299 

from  the  service  of  tlie  mere  letter ;  it  is  drudgery,  it 
is  bondage,  it  is  pain.  Preaching  should  be  as  natural 
and  as  easy  as  healthy  breathing.  There  is  no  occasion 
for  it  to  be  a  toil.  It  should  be  the  expression  of  the 
heart's  best  life, — not  the  effort  of  a  pump,  but  the 
blessing  of  rich  and  genial  rain.  Men  talk  of  making 
sermons  and  getting  off  sermons  and  begging  sermons, — 
flee  from  such  men  as  from  enemies !  Let  your  ac- 
quaintance with  the  holy  word  be  accurate  and  profound ; 
let  the  word  of  God  dwell  in  you  richly ;  be  careful  and 
constant  in  your  study  of  human  nature  j  live  not  in  the 
clouds,  but  in  the  common  experience  of  the  world ;  rely 
upon  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  never 
submit  to  the  servility  of  making  pretty  sentences  and 
preparing  for  pampered  seatholders  packets  of  fancy 
confectionery.  What  some  ministers  will  have  to  answer 
for  in  this  particular !  Many  a  sin  will  be  found  in  well 
trimmed  rhetoric,  in  neat  couplets,  in  stanzas  forced  in 
for  ejffect,  and  in  perorations  intended  to  elevate  the 
speaker  rather  than  advance  the  truth.  The  heart  is 
deceitful  above  all  things  !  How  we  catch  at  any  text 
on  which  we  can  show  our  cleverness  !  How  we  cheer 
ourselves  with  the  anticipated  effect  of  this  happy 
allusion  or  that  telling  illustration  !  How  we  turn  some 
sentences  to  please  the  chief  subscriber,  and  give  em- 
phasis to  some  doctrine  we  care  nothing  about,  just  to 
keep  the  old  man  in  the  great  pew  in  tolerable  sympathy 
with  our  ministry  !  How  often  our  prayers  are  mere 
investments,  and  our  tears  the  price  of  popularity  !  Our 
ministry  should  be  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  but  how  often 
is  it  formal  and  practically  false  !  "  Many  walk  of  whom 
I  have  told  you  often^  and  now  tell  you  even  weeping, 


300      Ad  Cleriim :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher 

that  tliey  are  the  enemies  of  tlie  cross  of  Clirist/'  We 
are  abaslied  and  utterly  confounded  wlien  we  read  wliat 
was  done  by  tlie  miglity  men  of  old^  who  led  the  cause 
of  Grod^  and  suffered  for  it  even  unto  death.  They 
^''subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness^  obtained 
promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the 
violence  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword,  waxed 
valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens ; 
they  had  trials  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings,  yea, 
moreover,  of  bonds  and  imprisonments ;  they  were 
stoned,  they  were  sawn  asunder,  were  tempted,  were 
slain  with  the  edge  of  the  sword ;  they  wandered  about 
in  sheepskins  and  goatskins,  being  destitute,  afflicted, 
tormented.''^  And  are  we  the  self-seeking  successors  of 
such  men,  writing  pretty  sermons  and  fattening  our- 
selves with  luxury  ?  ^^  We  are  troubled  on  every  side, 
yet  not  distressed;  we  are  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair; 
persecuted,  but  not  forsaken ;  cast  down,  but  not  de- 
stroyed;  for  Thy  sake  we  are  killed  all  the  day  long,  we 
are  accounted  as  sheep  for  the  slaughter/'  Are  we 
worthy  successors  of  those  princes  of  God  ?  If  we  speak 
of  having  in  any  degree  been  inconvenienced  in  the 
discharge  of  our  ministry,  how  instantly  are  we  rebuked 
by  the  testimony  of  Paul — "in  labours  more  abundant, 
in  stripes  above  measure,  in  prisons  more  frequent,  in 
deaths  oft ;  of  the  Jews  five  times  received  I  forty  stripes 
save  one;  thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods,  once  was  I 
stoned,  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck,  a  night  and  a  day  I 
have  been  in  the  deep ;  in  journeyings  often,  in  perils  of 
waters,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  by  mine  own 
countrymen,  in  perils  by  the  heathen,  in  perils  in  the 
city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in 


Epilogue.  301 

perils  among  false  brethren;  in  weariness  and  painful- 
ness,  in  watcliings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings 
often,  in  cold  and  nakedness, — even  unto  this  present 
hour  we  both  hunger  and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  are 
buffeted,  and  have  no  certain  dwelling-place/'  What  is 
our  lot  to  this  experience  of  pain  and  sorrow  and  loss ! 
In  the  hearing  of  such  heroic  words,  we  feel  as  if  we 
aggravate  our  sin  by  professing  to  be  ministers  of  Jesus 
Christ,  so  poor  is  our  service,  so  faint  our  devotions,  so 
deep  our  self-indulgence.  God  be  merciful  unto  us 
sinners  !  Enter  not  into  judgment  with  Thy  servants,  0 
Lord  t 

My  brother,  we  have  now  had  long  converse  with  each 
other.  Month  by  month,  for  two  years,  I  have  spoken 
to  you  such  things  as  were  intended  to  stimulate, 
instruct,  cheer,  and  bless  you.  On  some  occasions,  I 
have  used  great  plainness  of  speech;  on  others,  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  teaching  by  exaggeration,  thereby 
saying  many  things  which  are  to  be  interpreted  with 
charity  and  applied  with  discrimination.  We  part  now. 
''What  is  writ  is  writ;  would  it  were  worthier^'!  Be 
assured  that  wherein  I  have  spoken  harshly,  I  have  felt 
the  smart  of  the  scourge  myself;  wherein  I  have  yielded 
to  humour,  I  have  not  been  unmindful  of  the  reality  and 
sadness  of  human  life ;  and  wherein  I  have  extolled  my 
office,  I  have  desired  to  magnify  only  the  grace  of  God. 
For  the  present,  let  us  say  farewell.  When  you  want  to 
know  what  I  have  to  say  that  is  intended  to  help  you, 
read  " Springdale  Abbey''  and  ''Ad  Clerum";  in  these 
two  books  I  have  exhausted  all  that  is  at  present  in  my 
mind  upon  church  questions,  general  oratory,  pulpit 
preparation,  and  ministerial  work.     I  commend  you  to 


802      Ad  Clerum  :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher. 

Grod  and  to  tlie  word  of  His  grace.  *^  That  good  thing 
whicli  was  committed  unto  thee,  keep  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  dwelleth  in  us/^  Be  steadfast  in  God.  "  I  charge 
thee,  therefore,  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  His  appearing 
and  His  kingdom,  preach  the  word ;  be  instant  in  season, 
out  of  season;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all  longsufifer- 
ing  and  doctrine, — watch  thou  in  all  things,  endure 
afflictions,  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist,  make  full  proof 
of  thy  ministry '' ;  and  in  the  solemn  end,  when  the  full 
light  shineth,  and  we  see  things  as  they  really  are,  thou 
shalt  have  the  abiding  honour  which  cometh  from  God. 


Duller  &  Tiiuiier,  The  Sehvood  Printing  Works,  Fr 


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